Etsy Update

vintage 1980s AZTEC oversized tee - small / medium / large

vintage 1970s BURGUNDY maxi dress (coming soon)



vintage 1980s PINK HARLEQUIN cotton dress - small to medium

vintage 1990s NAVY MARL stretch crop top - small



vintage 1990s PINEAPPLE print blouse - small to medium

vintage 1980s ROBIN'S EGG blue silk t-shirt - medium to large

vintage 1990s PASTEL GINGHAM highwaisted shorts - small

New items in the shop kindly modeled for my by my younger sister Cassandra. Despite these pictures, she actually has no interest in vintage clothing or charity shopping which is a shame because we get along so well in other ways. My other younger sister gave me a copy of photoshop two days ago and hence the more professional format of these images. I am very much a novice and cut away the background using the eraser, it's taken me about 60 hours and so please don't expect me to maintain these standards in future shop updates. But I had to start somewhere and so it was a good exercise.

For these items (and more!) click on the links below the pictures. Blog readers get an extra 10% off by entering HUMANSEABLOG at checkout. Happy shopping!

Sewing Project: 1950s beach bralette Pt.II

Since finishing university, and moving temporarily back into my childhood home, I have set up station in my Mum's conservatory. It's the most beautiful room, full of exotic plants that have been steadily growing for decades and naturally - as a room made entirely of glass should be - is bathed in glorious natural light. There is a marble table with sockets directly beneath it and so it is absolutely the perfect place for embarking on all manner of creative projects and I have now completed my first ever dressmaking project: the 1950s beach bralette.



I picked up where I'd left off and repeated all the stages illustrated in Part I to produce an identical bra shape. (An outer and inner layer.)



Having got myself into a complete pickle attempting the strap on my last attempt, I was surprised to get it wrong all over again, in a completely different way. This time I didn't fold the fabric correctly and so ended up with the wrong shape and had to cut it in half and sew it together in the desired shape. Consummate professionalism.



I then folded the piece in half, sewed the edge of the point and then clipped it.



When turned inside out the pieces magically took on this shape:



I then basted the remaining raw edge of the strap into the front piece of the bra.





With the strap attached the bralette now looked like this:



And back to the sewing machine to seam the front and back sections together.





First the bottom and then the top. The pattern instructions recommended it the other way round but I was so terrified of accidentally sewing the strap inside that I decided to just bluff my way through at this point.



And here we have the completed body. The final steps were to ensure the fit and to work out the correct positioning of the buttons and buttonholes. This was rather tricky and I had to unpick the buttons and reposition them in order to get a 'secure' fit.



I recycled these buttons by cutting them off an old pair of Primark knickers that were falling to pieces.



Please excuse the dreadful button holes.



And here we have the finished article! I'm quite tempted to make some highwaisted knickers to go with and just go the hole hog and wear it as a 1950s bikini. Or perhaps I should make matching shorts or a circle skirt perhaps. What do you think?
Today I bought three yards of peach cotton from The Fent Shop in King's Lynn. It cost £18 and it feels like a rather extravagant purchase now but it is such beautiful fabric and I intend to make a simple feedsack dress AND a simple circle skirt and to still have lots of fabric left over so I don't feel too guilty...

Are you working on a sewing or craft project at the moment?

Natural history

Recently developed film but less than recent adventures in Manchester and London.

I am currently packing up my room and so this shall be my last post from Manchester, I shall no longer be a Manchester blogger! This makes me feel a little sad as I have enjoyed the last three years here so much and I will have to say goodbye to some truly lovely people that I have lived with or studied alongside. Manchester is such a great city, it's compact and yet offers so much and I shall miss it dearly although I'll be back July 15th for graduation!

Now, to pastures new...

Lukasz Wierzbowski for Urban Outfitters

I really like these photographs taken for Urban Outfitters by Lukasz Wierbowski. I like how he brings a playful and irreverent approach to the notion of fashion photography and they've inspired me to attempt a similar lookbook shoot for Human Sea Vintage over the summer. You can view the rest of the photographs here on the Urban Outfitters website.

There's still a 30% off sale happening at Human Sea Vintage. Just enter MOVINGHOUSE at checkout and help me to reduce my inventory as I make the move from Manchester to Norfolk to London. I currently have lots of peter pan collar blouses, sixties dresses and mary jane shoes in stock so grab yourself a pretty bargain for summer!

Sewing Project: 1950s beach bralette Pt.I

Welcome to my first ever sewing project! I have never attempted dressmaking before but it's something that I so want to be able to master as I'd absolutely adore to be able to make my own clothes, especially considering the abundance of vintage patterns there is on Etsy. I thought this 1950s beach bralette top would be a good place to start as it only consists of three main sections and the instructions seemed fairly comprehensive. I used a metre of a pretty ditsy floral polycotton I bought for about £3 in the Fent Shop in King's Lynn. It's a veritable Alladin's Cave for knitting and stitching enthusiasts, is a bit of a relic on the Playmobil-like revamped Vancouver Centre high street and is always immaculate inside with reams of fabric and truly knowledgeable staff. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything like it in Manchester, Abakhan's is really no match: it's absolute chaos inside and the poor-quality fabrics are strewn in metal bins across the floor.



I began by tracing the pattern onto greaseproof paper and cutting the shapes out. I then dutifully pinned them on the fabric which was folded according to the pattern requirements.



I cut around the shapes with my IKEA scissors.



Et voila! (At this point I din't realise that I had misread the pattern and that I would need double the pieces as the top needed to be lined, eek!)



Using a tapemeasure and the edge of a postcard after discovering that I do not have a ruler to my name, I marked out the darts according to the pattern.



You're probably not supposed to use biro for this task but I did it on the underside of the fabric and so hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.



I sewed the darts on one cup by hand as it was pretty late at night and I didn't want to keep my flatmates up with the terrible din of the sewing machine. I was also having difficulty threading it all and actually making it work, I was getting close to just smashing it to pieces so thought I'd reattempt after some sleep.



And here we have the two completed cups. It's amazing how something as simple as a dart can bring a flat piece of fabric to life and make it 3D.



I then placed the two cups on top of each other and sewed the edges together along a half inch seam allowance to connect them in the middle.



I started to get quite excited by this point as it started to take shape and actually look like a piece of clothing! Two minutes later I had sewn on the sides.



I then attempted the strap which went horribly wrong as I'd cut the fabric out as two separate pieces instead of as one piece, with a fold in the middle, as the pattern read. Unfortunately, I only found out after I'd sewn some peculiar fabric snake and had beaten my brain to a jelly trying to make the instructions work with my incorrect shapes. So I decided to call it a day. I will have to repeat this entire procedure and then baste and hem the two cups-with-sides sections back to back and then make the strap and finally sew button holes and sew on the buttons. I reckon I could do it in another afternoon when my exams are over but I just can't face it right now! When it's completed however, I intend to wear it with my periwinkle blue chambray circle skirt or perhaps attempt some bloomers or highwaisted shorts to go with it?



Have you sewn anything recently?

The Royal Wedding

I've only just got round to scanning in these pictures and in the future I will aim to keep my posts in greater synchronisation with actual events! My flatmate Lizzie accompanied me down to London for the big day and we went, along with my boyfriend and his flatmate, to Hyde Park Corner to watch the events on the big screen. There was a really lighthearted atmosphere of truly benign nationalism, a sort of festival meets family day out complete with ferris wheel, burger vans and music.





At Hyde Park Corner we met up with my old friend Lottie and her boyfriend (just seen on right) and flatmates. As an inhabitant of the Sandringham Estate back home, she is rather used to Royalist festivities and also, I should note, is the most amazing chef and when I'm lucky she cooks for me in her parents' beautiful eighteenth century house in the middle of the forest. On this particular day she brought along the loveliest scones with jam and clotted cream...







The planes were so cool and flew right over our heads!



This little girl reminded me a bit of Karen from Outnumbered.



(I couldn't resist. I hope my children are just like her.)



Afterwards we went to Lottie's flat in Holloway Road and had a barbeque, enjoyed some glorious sunshine on the terrace and stayed up late reminiscing about school and everything embarrassing that had ever happened ever.