Muslin was one of the most popular fabrics imported into England from India in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. For embroidery, muslins were first stretched on a frame or attached to a paper backing. Designs were either taken from textile prototypes or printed sources, and could be drawn by the amateur embroiderer, an embroidery teacher or a trained designer. The outlandish birds embroidered on this apron show various sources, from the Indian peacock and Chinese phoenix to earlier English needlework bird motifs seen in seventeenth-century embroidery. The sinuous linear design recalls that of European ‘bizarre’ silk brocades.