A reader has just finished her own hand-quilted 18th century petticoat (massive kudos and envy here!) and wants to know what to wear under it. Based on my research: anything from large formal hoops to nothing but a shift and perhaps another petticoat, but bumrolls and small panniers were probably the most common, at least for the relatively well-to-do in the later 18th century. When I get around to making a proper silk hand-quilted one myself I plan to pleat my petticoat with an even hem, but extra pleating at the sides, so it could be worn with small panniers and a bumroll, or without, as we see in this petticoat: Quilted petticoats were informal winter (well, cold-weather) wear ubiquitous across England, and common in France and America as well.  Buck calls them “the undress of the country gentlewoman” (p. 72), though some extent petticoats seem to have been worn with more formal gowns. As they were generally informal, I found few mentions of quilted petticoats over wide hoops in the later 18th century, though …