Stockist Spotlight - Little Wise Owl

Who are you?
I’m Beckie VandeHoef, I live in Mt Martha on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, and I run a little thing I call 'little wise owl'. Just after a had my first son Roy (who is now 4 and big brother to 6 month old Des) I found myself filling the day making fun little creations from the mountains of fabric and other things id collected along the way.
That’s when ‘little wise owl’ was born.

What do you make?
whatever takes my fancy at the time ;)
mainly handbags, shopping totes, purses, and other accessories, with some softies thrown in the mix too.

When did you get started?

Way back in the spring or 1992 when i got a sewing machine for my birthday, ah boy the time flies when your having fun.
I have studied fashion design and fine arts at uni and have always had an interest in ’making’ and re using anything I could find. I remember very well being about 9 and dad bringing home metres and metres of wiring in all different colours so I could plait bracelets for my friends, so ive always been a bit of a re-user.
I have always created for myself and friends, but found that I had far too many ideas I wanted to try, and materials to use to keep it all to ourselves. i opened a madeit.com.au store in august of 2007 and quickly got a couple of great stockists on board. And now I can happily feed my vintage fabric collecting fetish!

Why do you make your 'thing'?

I love finding vintage tablecloths, sheets, doilies, and remnant pieces of fabric, trim, buttons etc and making new exciting fun things from them. I have issues with buying new things, so if I can resurrect an unloved item into something fun and new then im happy!
plus the environment is extra happy with all the stuff i save from landfill.

Where to next for you? (what direction do you see your work heading in?)

i love trying new techniques, so im dabbling in a bit of crochet and embroidery at the moment, and hopefully working on some paintings too (all featuring vintage fabric of course)