.. for the copious amounts of detail and trimming. Trim was cheap and readymade and easily available to most women across America in the early 1870’s, as the design of the machine was improving constantly from the original Singer models of 1861.
(Photo: Lecturer on women’s rights, Sojourner Truth in about 1862 with one of the first models of home sewing machines. This was a postcard she sold at her events)