.. Museum examples of “every day” women of the 1840’s and 1850’s show large flounces in matching fabrics with as much trim as they could afford. Since the home sewing machine was not available for another decade, they must have had dressmakers make these; terribly pricey because of all that fabric. One could assume they reworked older garments into matching trim or flounces to “stick” onto newly shaped garments.
(Garments: Late 1850’s evening (left) and day (right) dresses of plaids and prints typical of the decade. Note the simple flounces – and fewer of them – in these “lower class” garments)