White-on-white embroidery was a particularly popular adornment for clothing and household linens in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when its simplicity was associated with the beauty of classical sculpture and architecture. In the absence of color, the embroiderer of this fragment skillfully combined a variety of stitches in cotton and silk to mimic the natural textures of the oak leaves and acorns, resulting in an eye-catching and tactile design. According to family tradition, Martha Washington embroidered it.