[1] In 1904 she left Canada to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London under Henry Tonks, Philip Wilson Steer and Walter Westley Russell.

[3] Stevens continued her career as an etcher during World War I (1914–1918), alternating between Toronto and New York.

Late in 1918 she heard of a program to commission works from Canadian artists depicting home-front subjects, led by Eric Brown, Director of the National Gallery of Canada, when her friends Frances Loring and Florence Wyle were given commissions.

She sent a letter to Brown offering to make a series of etchings, and he agreed to accept two, one on shipbuilding and the other on women in a munitions or airplane factory.

Her prints were among the best produced under the program, vividly depicting the "hustle and forced pace" of the work.

[8] Stevens made draft plates of Montreal factories, but the program ran out of funding before approval could be given for the work.

[9] After World War I Stevens won a traveling scholarship to Europe to continue her art studies, where she sketched the cathedrals of Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels.

[11] Her exhibitions received excellent reviews, she won many awards and was given many commissions to paint portraits.