Last night I was reading to Orla, and we reached a section where the little girl in the story put on her ‘petticoat’, and Orla asked ‘what’s a petticoat?’.  I found this interesting, for when I was five years of age I would not have asked this question. My sister and I had lots of petticoats, as we wore mostly dresses and skirts at the same age, and one wore a petticoat (or ‘slip’) under a dress. I got to thinking, when was the last time I wore  a petticoat (or slip)? I do still have one (as I discovered on investigation), not a full slip,  but a skirt petticoat, for wearing under a skirt…naturally. Now, I don’t wear skirts any more, but when I still worked full time and wore a mid calf length skirt, I would wear a petticoat, as it prevented the skirt catching my legs and bunching up.

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