Alice's Scrapbag: Auntie's Fichu

SuznQuilts is making one of her mini Dresden Plate samplers from my Moda collection
Alice's Scrapbag plus Milles Coulores by Three Sisters. See more pictures at her blog post:

https://suznquilts.wordpress.com/tag/alices-scrap-bag-by-barbara-brackman/

"Auntie's Fichu" is the name for a little floret in a regular grid set

in Alice's Scrapbag.

It's a little nosegay or puffy flower found in Alice's Four Patches.

Document print from Alice' quilt

atop the reproduction print from Alice's Scrapbag

Those grid prints or foulards were fashionable for neck wear,

so I named it Auntie's Fichu

Woman in a paisley print fichu,

what we'd call a scarf.

Mid-century necklines required a collar accessory

(or maybe two)

Lace collars were quite the rage.

Ribbons were an alternative

Often a white fichu finished off the outfit.

Fichu from The Ladies' Home Magazine, 1860.

Such elegant fichus are usually finished with a "fall of lace"

1865

New York Public Library

Fiche at the top, fichu at the bottom.

Was it length that made the difference?

Sometimes the fichus were patterned

(or is it a trimmed ribbon)

I imagine Alice's Auntie (probably a great-auntie) to look like this woman

 in her black lace cap, foulard print dress and patterned scarf.

A little touching up the old photo

Alice's original quilt shows how eye-catching those foulard-style

prints were. The original is the spotty print that jumps out at you. We toned down the contrast a bit.

A compromise between their taste for spots and ours.