Anne of Green Gables

When I was ten years old, I was obsessed with reading and my parents bought me a little bookcase filled with classic children’s stories.  Amongst Treasure Island, Enid Blyton, and 1001 Arabian Nights was my first experience of Anne of Green Gables. I loved all those books, but Anne of Green Gables sticks out.  It’s about a young orphan girl and how she finds a family and makes friends from such an unimaginable beginning.  It resonated with my younger self (actually it still resonates with me now)she’s highly imaginative, feisty and above all, remains true to herself.  Although I couldn’t recognise it at the time, for a young girl it was really empowering.  It was a story about being different and that being okay.

One of the advantages of a job which involves a lot time at my sewing machine is that you can watch a good box set on your laptop and still call it work.  When Netflix brought out the ‘Anne with an E’ series based on the book I watched it straight away and I know a lot of other dolly friends did too.  It was visually stunning with truly lovely costumes.  I felt so inspired that I made the sets for Blythe and Ruruko.

At the time, it was only meant as a one off but when I recently did an Instagram post asking followers to pick some old favourites, I had lots of messages about Anne of Green Gables.  So, I’ve revisited those designs, and two special sets are underway.  One for Anne and one for her bosom buddy Diane Barry.  I hope you will like them.

Illustrations by Anna C. Leplar