Morgan Wills | Eco Friendly Designs

Morgan Wills is a Melbourne designer, who utilises eco friendly products of the highest quality to create unique scarves, beads, pins and bushka dolls.

The labels early stages would be started initially after Morgan was looking for a career change. Having worked in Event Management for 12 years, she was getting restless and after growing up watching her father run his own business, she always had a desire to work for herself. The final piece of the puzzle would come when Morgan took a year off work on maternity leave stating that "this gave me the real impetus to start."

Believing that children ultimately are a product of their environment, sewing and working with fabric came easily for Morgan as it was a big part of her life growing up watching her mother. Combining this with a Diploma of Arts in Furniture Design & Construction, an Associate Diploma of Arts in Interior Design & Decoration and a Certificate of Interior Decoration meant she always had the necessary skills to succeed.

The first product in her first range she made to sell was her Cast offs scarves. "Way back in 2004 I was playing around with some felted woollen jumpers that I had and I made one for my husband. He was chuffed and wore it all through the winter. A bit later down the track when I was pregnant with our daughter Kitty – I made her a baby cot blanket using a similar idea. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was collecting woollen jumpers here, there and everywhere," she explained.

Then is 2006, her small boutique design label originated stemming from her passion and love of colour. "I’ve always been into craft and even as a child I was into reusing everyday objects and materials I found around the house to make things. My label is focused on crafting unique eco friendly products of the highest quality," she added.

Ideas often come to Morgan as she goes about her everyday tasks. She explains, "the trick for me is really to take the time to note them down as they arrive. I seem to have so many ideas and so little time! Often my new products have been floating around for quite a while before I get the time to make up a sample and really think about how I will create it and if I want to create lots of them."

Inspiration on the other hand, comes to her from a wide array of sources. Whether it be sorting through her enormous stash of fabric looking at all the colours and patterns, collecting vintage haberdashery, children’s books, travelling, her children, or memories of her own childhood.

Morgan’s decision to make eco friendly, recycled products stemmed from her love of op shopping. "When you find jumpers or vintage fabrics in mint condition you've really hit the jackpot; you go home very happy. They are getting very hard to find though. Part of the fun is the hunt. For me, finding the right colour or texture of jumper or fabric is truly a Eureka moment," she said.

However, with that in mind, Morgan is still very fussy, only using 100 per cent finely woven woollen jumpers for her Cast Off range. The plus side to this of course, means no two scarves or Cast offs products will ever be the same. With the Mumma & Baby Bushka dolls, part of her Play with Me range, she uses all sorts of fabrics. Everything from vintage fabrics, designer off cuts and her personal favourite, linen and cotton souvenir tea towels and floral tablecloths.

What Morgan loves most about the eco friendly designs, is that she gets to create something new out of something discarded. She went on to say, "Often the jumpers I buy have a hole in them or have turtle necks or something else which makes them a bit daggy, or the colour is not in fashion at the moment. It doesn’t matter to me. I just see the potential in it."

Morgan’s work is available at a number of retailers around Australia and New Zealand and also on her website here

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