By the end of the C19 domestic dressmaking skills could be turned into a way of earning a living outside the home. Evangeline in The Homemaker is a gifted seamstress whose work is admired and whose ideas and advice are sought by the ladies in her church guild sewing group. When she is forced to take a position in a department store, she finds fulfilment and satisfaction in selling fabrics and trimmings, using her serious understanding of textiles to forge a career. The Dressmakers (1918) is by Louis Valtat (1869-1952) who often painted dressmakers, knitters, and stitchers in a fresh, colourful, contemporary style devoid of sentimentality.