On this day in 1913, a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob received a patent for her invention of the modern brassiere, a streamlined alternative to the unhealthy and painful corset.
Mary Givens Pickel of Bloomsbury, New Jersey, hand pieced and hand quilted this Crazy Quilt in 1930 from a variety of fabrics including scraps from fabric used to make her corsets. The record in includes this note:
“Quiltmaker had a back problem and had her corsets made by a seamstress. This quilt was made from the corset fabric scraps.”
The quilt was documented by Pickel’s son in 1997 as part of the Heritage Quilt Project of New Jersey, Inc., and was included in the book “Herstory:Quilts of Hunterdon County,” p. 30.
View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt.
Source:
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/brassiere.htm
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org