19th Century Early.  Linen Petticoat, American.    via Credit:Gift of Mrs. George Nichols, 1964  via Metropolitan Museum, New York City, USA.

In Jane Austen’s years of the early nineteenth century, women often wore light-weight dresses under which was worn a range of underclothing to stop gowns appearing transparent and sticking to a lady’s body. To preserve modesty, underclothing included a chemise next to the skin, then a corset, and then petticoats to give shape to a dress and to keep it away from her body.