Jeannette Marshall was only one of a large army of women who were creating various effects in the home. She herself did more than many: painting chairs and mantelpieces as well as embroidering and creating "effects". Much of what she did would be classed as "fancy-work". Women who "made" their homes, who created the ideal domestic space, were supposed to spend their time looking after the men, ensuring that their material needs were filled.
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The objects that were made, both for their own homes and to be sold at church bazaars, moved from useful, through to things to put useful things in, to just plain bizzare.
Many items recommended by ladies' journals smacked of desperation: a guitar made from cardboard and silk scraps; a Turkish slipper made from a "couple of old visiting cards" and more silk scraps; a penwiper shaped like a hand with the motto "No Hands should be Idle" embroidered on it in beading, which rendered it incapable of wiping pens; and a wheelbarrow of card, ribbon and gold paper.