Sunday 7 August 2011

Anne of Green Gables Puffed Sleeve Dress

In the spring of 2008 we decided to re-create Anne of Green Gables puffed sleeve dress to reflect the image found in Lucy Maud Montgomery's scrapbook.  The dress was displayed with a collection of memorabilia at the Confederation Center of the Arts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables.

Below:  Here I am setting up the dress at the Confederation Center of the Arts in advance to the rest of the display.
Below is a picture taken from L.M.Montgomery's scrapbook.  On occasion she would use her scrapbook for inspiration and likely used this to image Anne's puffed sleeve dress.  We based our sleeve dress on this design.

Below:  After I brought the dress home from the Confederation Centre we photographed the puffed sleeve dress in detail in my Living Room - a setting more in keeping with the period of the dress.
"...Anne took the dress and looked at it in reverent silence.  Oh, how pretty it was--a lovely soft brown gloria with all the gloss of silk; a skirt with dainty frills and shirrings; a waist elaborately pintucked in the most fashionable way, with a little ruffle of filmy lace at the neck.  But the sleeves--they were the crowning glory!..."
cf.  Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1908
http://www.online-literature.com/view.php/anne_green_gables/25?term=puffed

3 comments:

  1. That is such a beautiful dress! I was trying to find an accurate picture for my students, and I came upon your images :)

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  2. Hi. Thank you for the pictures and for recreating the dress. I was rereading the book and always wondered what brown gloria looked like so I made a search and to my surprise found a complete dress! Thank you! Anyway, hope they will make the right dress for the new series :). http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/13/breaking-bad-writer-anne-of-green-gables-moira-walley-beckett

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  3. I am so happy you recreated this dress as its described in the Books! I was looking to see if there was any information I could findo (other than the description in the book) as to how it looked! I'm planning on recreating it myself!

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