.. working at their home sewing machines, buying undergarments and materials from catalogs, and copying the styles of the Queen of England at the beginning of the “3rd Bustle” or “Hard Bustle”, or “Horse Rear End” bustle era which signaled the start of the Late Victorian Era.
(French 1870’s cartoon: Satirists and humorists really enjoyed changing fashion, especially bustles and crinolines to “poke fun” at the extreme styles)