Becky’s celebrates 20 years in Bay View

In December 1989, after eight years teaching junior high at St. Veronica, Becky Peelen was ready for a change. Not that she didn’t love teaching, but she realized life was short and, “I just decided I’d rather do something I love.”

That was sewing, which she’d already been doing for people out of her home.

She opened Becky’s Custom Sewing & Design Shoppe at 2908 S. Delaware Ave. and hasn’t looked back since. “In fact, I’ve sewn weddings for a lot of these kids,” who were former students, Peelen said.

While it has the feel of a neighborhood shop, Peelen said over the last 20 years she’s served customers from every state in the union and some foreign countries. Locally, customers come from Bay View, Cudahy, Milwaukee, St. Francis-with a lot from the East Side. Her son works at Quarles & Brady and she said she sews for a lot of Quarles & Brady employees.

Over the years, she’s done clown costumes, leather Elvis suits, and made a Pokemon costume for her grandson-she even helped someone design an ice-fishing tent. Customers come to her with a picture, pattern, or idea and she’ll make a garment they desire from scratch.

“Their needs are not met by the retail market because the clothes maybe are too tall, too short, too fat, too thin.”

Peelen’s customer base has become intergenerational. For example, she sewed garments for a customer’s eighth grade graduation, prom, and wedding. Now that customer has an 8-year-old daughter who needs a First Communion dress.

“For me, every time someone goes down the aisle…it’s just very rewarding,” she said. “I’m just part of the very best time in people’s lives.”

Recently, she sewed the entire wardrobe for the African American Children’s Theatre’s Flashback to Motown production.

What do the next 20 years hold for her? In 2006, Peelen and her husband climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. They befriended some porters there and plan to return to help them with English skills.