The Royal Visit

On July 3rd and 4th the Prince William and Kate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be on Prince Edward Island as part of the Royal Tour to Canada. I have received an invitation to attend a afternoon event where Kate and William will be treated to  An Island Experience. There will be 4 of us going Tammy and Pamela my 2 nieces are thrilled at having the chance to get a glimpse of the Royals.  They say the PEI was picked as a stop because of Kate's interest in the Book Anne Of Green Gables. In 2008 the 100th anniversary of the publishing of Anne they said that over 50,000,000 copies of the book had been sold the. It was printed in 24 languages and in almost every country around the globe. This evening the stats show hits from 9 countries so I have a way to go. Our motel has been open for several weeks and each day we have people who are from as far away as England, Scotland, Ireland, Arizona, Arkansaw, Georgia, British Columbia and the Yukon all because of their interest in the writings of LLMontgomery.

Prince Edward Island was named for Prince Edward Duke of Kent Queen Victoria's Father. Before that it was called St.John's Island or by the Native name Abegweit, which means Cradled on the Waves. We who live here call it "The Island" as if was the only Island of and importance and do not look kindly at anyone who would not share that opinion.  

We had a spectacular day here today after a cool wet spring we are feeling we are long over due for some nice weather. If anyone is interested in where I spend my summers, go to www.bayvista.ca . We are 3 miles from the Green Gables house.   We need good sunny weather to keep the tourists happy and as long as it rain between midnight and 6:00 in the morning everyone is happy.     

Just checking the blog stats

I am very new to blogging and while exploring the site I came across the stats header and was surprised to see how many hits the blog has had and what countries they are from. Canada and USA were not surprising I was interested when I saw that someone from Germany had checked out the site, I guess in this day and age anyone around the world can access information world wide. I wonder when I will get my first hit from Japan? It will be 100 years next Tuesday that LMM was married to Rev MacDonald. I wonder if anyone has reproduced these dresses before?    

The first dresses we worked on

Each dress was created on its own mannequin and we worked on several at one time and they soon began to take over the ground floor family room which had become our workspace for the project.  This large room was where we had hosted my parents 55th wedding anniversary with a sit-down dinner for 32 family members.  So when we set up the cutting table, sewing table and started draping bolts of fabric over the all the chairs and sofas it was soon near impossible to find a space to sit down..

In the photo below, the door and sidelites on the left were salvaged from an old Island farm home and given new life, adding character to our heritage home. 

The table we sewed on was saved on the night our original home was destroyed by fire on January 10, 1977.  In a rush to get it out we lost one of the legs going through the door and the cost to replace it was more than the table had cost when we had it built new.  The night of the fire we lost most of what we had owned and the community came together and by the next evening we were living in another house my brother and I owned and surrounded by gifts and donations of everything we could possibly need to help get us through that devastating experience - now 34 years later we have surrounded ourselves again with antiques and memorabilia that has been in the family for generations.

Below: This is the first dress we worked on - this is the mock-up of the black net stripe silk dress which was the favourite of L.M.M.  We've been unable to find a black silk strip net to do the finished dress the fabric that we had used for the mock-up gives a good impression of what the finished garment will look like and we are still searching for the appropriate fabric.  In the meantime this one will be displayed as a representation.  The dress has a full and flowing skirt that trains behind and is made with a solid underlining with the stripe net over top.  There is also a front two-layer panel that goes almost to the floor.  The bodice is pleated and layered to give a textured effect with insets of lace and the same lace is used on the sleeves.  It has a pleated belt at the waist.

Below is the white embroidered cotton dress.  It has a two-layered skirt, the over skirt tapering to a point at the center front and each layer is trimmed with eyelet lace.  The bodice is full and pleated into a rounded yoke neck and the sleeves are full and fitted to give some fullness at the shoulder.  The sleeve length is mid-way between the elbow and wrist and fitted with a cuff.

Below.  While photographing the progress of the dresses, our family cat, became fascinated with the white embroidered cotton dress and had a great time playing under it and amusing herself by jumping out at us as we walked by.  This seemed fitting as LMM was very fond of cats and wrote extensively in her journals about them and the joy they brought her.

Below.  To photgraph the dresses we staged them in a period setting - we used an antique side board, silver tray and china tea service.  As well we accessorized the dressed with an antique lace collar, embroidered hankies and jewelery to give them a finished look.

Peace! You never know what peace is until...

The words of Lucy Maud Montgomery from her autobiography, The Alpine Path.



"My Trousseau began to arrive today..."

...wrote LM Montgomery in her journal (Volume II: 1910-1921 Edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston 1985, ISBN 0-19-541801-8 pages 64-66) on Tuesday, May 23, 1911.
"...and we were all interested in that.  My things were pretty. I had worn black for grandmother all spring but I laid it aside when I got married.  My wedding dress was of white-silk crepe  de soie with tunic of chiffon and pearl bead trimming - and of course the tulle veil and orange blossom wreath.  These are snaps the girls took of some of my dresses.  My suit was of steel gray cloth, with gray chiffon blouse and gray hat trimmed with a wreath of tiny rosebuds.  My long wrap was of gray broadcloth.  Besides the dresses 'illustrated ' I had a linen dress, a pink muslin, one of white embroidery, and several odd waists."

Trousseau Mania

Ann Thurlow was out to the house in mid May to see the Trousseau project and wrote an article for June 2011 issue of THE BUZZ titled: "Trousseau Mania: Arnold Smith recreates LM Montgomery outfits" - here it is in part on page A21.  See The Buzz online: http://www.buzzon.com/articles/columnists/p-to-z/thurlow-ann/9312



Original Trousseau Photos

There are 7 original photos of LMM taken in late May early June 1911 at Park Corner. The originals of these photos are in the LMM Collection in the Archives of the University of Guelph http://images.ourontario.ca/uoguelph/results?q=trousseau&st=kw . The photos below were published in a book called "The LMMontgomery Album" By Kevin McCabe  http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=8079

These are three of the pictures we used. We first created a pattern based on the design of the dress and then made a basic fabric mock-up to test the fit and to see how well it resembled the design details in the photos. Next we altered the pattern to give a better fit and allow for any changes that needed to be made. In some cases this took as many as three or four tries to achieve the look and fit that was appropriate to the time. 

Above: On the dress form on the left is the basic petticoat that we used to give the skirts shape and fullness. If the dress required more fullness we added a second layer of ruffles at a higher level. The dress form on the right has the mock up for the embroidered white cotton dress. After we got a high powered magnifying glass we were able to see the the ruffles were not so wide and went with a simpler lace.

     

The Dress form on the right has the blue mock-up top while the dark green shirt is a work in  progress. Behind this dress you will the edge of the second white embroidered we tried with the pattern modifications.  

Welcome

This past winter we decided to do something to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Wedding of Lucy Maud Montgomery and the Rev. Ewen MacDonald who were married on July the 5th, 1911 at Park Corner, Prince Edward Island. We chose to reproduce the the clothing she purchased for her Trousseau. She had a keen eye for fashion and with the income from her writing she was able to purchase a number of outfits what were fashionable yet dignified enough for a new minister's wife.

This is my home in Pleasant Valley, Prince Edward Island. The house dated from 1860 and was built by my Sharpe ancestors, it was slated for demolition in 1999 and I was able to save it by moving it 1 1/2 miles to the home farm and spent the next 2 years restoring it. I will tell you more about the house in later blogs.

We worked from the basement walk out family room with a view out over the countryside. The room was large enough that we were able to work on the 6 outfits at one time and each one had its own dress form so it was interesting to see them take shape. We started by studing the pictures and drafting patterns and doing mock ups of each outfit to develop a working pattern. This process took many long hours of trial and error, fitting and altering until we were satisifyed. Next came finding the right fabrics, colors, accent fabrics and trims and notions. This project would not have been possible without the help and support of Fabricville in Charlottetown. http://www.fabricville.com/  They have a wonderful staff and have even ordered in needed fabric and dress forms for us.