Petticoat Jane and FrannB Designs

My daughter joined my petticoatjane shop www.etsy.com/shop/petticoatjane selling her unique designs. She has hand printed slogan t-shirts and dress with a hand printed skirt for sale. The hand printed skirt was made using leaves and plants from the garden. All made under her own logo FrannB Designs.  Why not check them all out or if you have a slogan you want on a t-shirt contact me via my etsy shop.


I have also sold the Swears & Wells Sailor Top in the last week from Petticoat Jane Vintage www.etsy.com/shop/petticoatjanevintage. I would still love to find out more about it though if anyone knows anything please leave me a comment.

What is the history behind these clothes?

Sometimes, you find vintage clothes and just long to know more about them.  This is what happened when I found this great sailors shirt and trousers.  These obviously have some age to them, They are by Swears & Wells. The buttons of the trousers have Swears & Wells stamped onto them.  The collar of the shirt is detachable The second picture shows the label inside the sailor top and the third some old Swears and Wells labels I found on the internet.  Apparently according to these labels they were an outfitters who produced girls and boys school uniform.  I have been wondering if this is a school uniform, but have not been able to find anything out on the internet or maybe Sea Scouts.  

This second sailor top that has 4-6 hand written inside and has a label with a crest and the words Nelson, Portsmouth in it.  This is in the same colours as the Swears & Wells shirt, but the second top (see fourth photo) does not have a detatchable colour.  Nelson Portsmouth also does not bring up anything on an internet search.  If anyone knows anything or has any information that would be fantastic.  The Nelson Portsmouth label is in the last photo.

The stitching on both these look to have been done on a hand sewing machine and they have been hand finished as the trimming is hand sewn.

I would love to be able to trace the history of these 2 uniforms.