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Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Helen: Hello and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co.

Caroline: And I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns.

Helen: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew and it’s basically all we want to talk about.

Caroline: Today we’re interviewing Daisy Braid, aka DIY Daisy. We chat with her about her book, Sew It Yourself, and her personal style evolution. We also cover how to find the good stuff when you’re secondhand shopping and her year of DIY.

Helen: If you love to sew, this is your show.

Helen: Hello, Daisy. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Daisy: Thanks for having me.

Helen: We’re so excited to chat with you. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Daisy: Of course. So my name is Daisy Braid and I live on the Gold Coast, which is Yugambeh country in Australia. I’m 30 years old. I’m a twin. I’m also a gemini. And I’m also a big sister. So I have another little brother and a little sister as well. And, of course, I like sewing.

Helen: Of course.

Caroline: Yes, you are DIY Daisy, after all.

Daisy: Yep.

Caroline: Okay, let’s start off with hearing a little bit about your sewing journey. Can you tell us how and when you learned to sew?

Daisy: Well, I guess a sewing machine just sort of appeared, or existed in my house. And so I always, kind of, saw it and was like, “Oh, I guess that’s something I could just figure out how to do.” And, when I was younger, I was always really inspired by my auntie, who was a plus size designer in Aotearoa, New Zealand. And she’s been doing that for 30 years. So when I was a kid, she was probably halfway through doing that, I guess, or 10 years into doing that. And I always saw her doing that and I thought, “Wow, that’s really cool that she has this passion and this thing that she’s interested in. I want to be like that too.” And also my grandmother, who was my mum’s mum and my auntie’s mum, she was a sewist and a quilter. And she always sewed her own outfits. And my grandpa always told me stories about how every weekend she would sew a different outfit to wear. And I just wanted to be like that. I thought, “Oh, that’s such a cool way to have your own clothes in your own style.”

So when I was younger, I wanted to have my own clothes in my own style. So. I would go to the op shop and find pieces of clothing to upcycle or to change the hem or make into another kind of top and it sort of started from there. Very DIY approach, just figuring out how the sewing machine worked. I absolutely ruined that machine when I was a teenager, but I learned a lot about how the machine works and how clothing goes together. And so that was sort of like my origin story as a sewist. But then, in high school, I continued a little bit more, not doing home ec, I didn’t do home ec, but I would bring my sewing into the art room and I would, like, apply that to my projects and what I was doing in art.

And then I guess I forgot about sewing for a few years, you know, that time in your life where you’re like, “I’m at uni, I can go to the club, I can drink now. So I’m going to go out.” And I was travelling a bit more. So I sort of left that to the side, but I would still make my costumes for a dress-up party. And then a couple of years later, I moved to New Zealand, and I guess the slow fashion or the the local fashion community is really strong there and I was kind of immersed in that. I started working for this designer who was, they’re called Twenty-Seven Names, and they’re a New Zealand made designer, like, label, and they would make all of their clothes in the country and they would really get their community involved with it. And they made beautiful clothing. And then I got a job.

Helen: How did you end up getting this job working with this designer? Was it because you had sewing skills or did you know them previously? Like, how did that happen?

Daisy: So basically I moved to New Zealand because I’d been with this guy and he cheated on me. My parents hate me telling that story, but I think it’s part of why I moved. I was feeling really lost and my mum sort of said like, “I don’t know who you are anymore. You’re not you anymore. So I think you should go and live in New Zealand. You should go spend some time with your auntie.” And my auntie is always someone that I’ve really admired because of the way that she is, like, so persistent in, “This is what I’m doing. This is my job. This is my career. I’m a fashion designer. And I’m going to keep creating clothing for women’s bodies.” And I’ve always just been like, “Oh, just so amazing.” So I thought, okay, I’ll go and work with her. And I kind of was her intern for maybe six months. And I lived with her for free, which was perfect because the job with her obviously wasn’t paid. And, but then after that six months, she was like, “Okay, Daisy, if you’re going to stay around a bit longer, you’re going to have to start paying rent. So you’re going to need to get a job.” I was like, “No problem.” So I started looking for jobs, and when you live in New Zealand, I guess, and you’re interested in fashion, you learn about the local designers. And one of them that I became aware of was Twenty-Seven Names. And I thought that their clothing was beautiful. And the stories, of the way that they told the story of each collection was so thoughtful. And I also liked the idea of this slow fashion. I was starting to discover slow fashion and more thoughtfully-made fashion.

So I applied and I got a job in their retail store, just selling the clothes, like, on the weekend and a couple of days a week. And then while I was working there. I was still helping my auntie a little bit, but that was where I sort of started to make friends in New Zealand. So I felt like, okay, I’m going to have a paid job from now on working with my auntie, I need something more. I lived with my auntie, I worked at Twenty-Seven Names. And then one day I saw a job for The Fabric Store and it was in their head office and it felt like a job that would align with what I studied at uni. So I applied and I got that job. And the only reason I got that, or one of the reasons I think I got that job, was because they asked me, “Who are some of the local designers that you like?” And I said, “Well, of course I love Twenty-Seven Names. And I like The Carpenter’s Daughter, which is my auntie’s brand. And then I said a couple of other local designers, and I think they were like, “Okay, she, she’s interested in local fashion. She’s not talking about fast fashion. She gets what, what our mission is and our values.” And I also said, “I know how to sew,” even though I hadn’t sewn for years at that point. And I think that’s how I got the job there.

Helen: Amazing. Well, it’s like riding a bike. You’re like, yeah, it’ll come back to me.

Daisy: Exactly, exactly. But I was, boy, was I wrong! Like, when I first got there and I was like, “All right, I’m going to go start learning how to sew again.” I was completely out of my depth because everybody that I worked with had studied fashion at uni. So I was like, “Oh, I’m, I’m just a DIY girl with all of these really talented seamstresses and makers.” Every single person that I worked with wore me-made every day. It was really inspiring. And that’s, and so as soon as I got there, I was like, that’s it. I’m buying a sewing machine.

Caroline: Okay. So you were in New Zealand working at The Fabric Store, but when I started following you, you were living in Japan. So can you tell us what you were doing there? How did you end up there?

Daisy: Yeah. So I was always interested in Japan and Japanese culture, and I’d studied Japanese language all throughout my schooling. And I did a year or so at university while I was also studying business. So when I was learning Japanese at uni, I heard about this thing called the JET program, which is kind of organized through your country’s government, I guess, and they have it in, like, lots of different countries where English is a first language. So that was a way for you to go and work in Japan. They pick your placement as well and they put you in a school and then you will be an assistant language teacher and you will go and assist Japanese teachers of English with teaching English so that they have a native speaker in the classroom.

And I had already used my working holiday visa in Japan because I had done some snow seasons in Hokkaido. And I thought, well, this is another way for me to go and experience Japanese culture, but in a different way, because when you do a snow season, you’re surrounded by foreigners. And yes, there are obviously Japanese people around you, but you definitely don’t experience life in Japan in the same way, because it’s a party culture and it’s a snow town. So if you’ve ever been or done a season, you would understand. It’s like, you’re partying in the nights and on the weekend, you’re skiing in the day, maybe you’d go to the onsen once or twice a week.

But I thought If I taught English in Japan, I would be able to experience life all year round instead of just in winter and maybe get to expand my circle, I guess, of my understanding of Japanese. And meet new Japanese people. So I got placed in Tokyo, and like I said, they choose where they put you. So you just apply, you give them all this information and then they pick where you go based on, I don’t even know, they don’t really tell you the criteria. And so I was placed in a school in Tokyo and five days a week I would teach English.

Helen: Cool. Oh my gosh. It sounds like a dream to be placed in Tokyo. Were you so excited when you got that placement?

Daisy: I was, because everyone had said, there’s actually a very big community of assistant language teachers online. So there’s, like, Reddit groups and there’s YouTubers that are all within that community. So you can learn about doing the JET program or learn about being an ALT which is an assistant language teacher. And everyone had always said getting Tokyo is the hardest placement. No one knew how you would get Tokyo. And so there were even people in my group that were pretty grumpy at me for getting that. And I said, like, I didn’t even have it on my list of my top three placements that I would, would like to get. So I was very excited. But one of the downsides of living in Tokyo on the JET program is that your accommodation is not subsidized and you have to find it yourself. So if you get placed anywhere but Tokyo, usually the local board of education or your school will have a house for you, a full house, not an apartment, and it might already have appliances, whereas in Tokyo you have to go through the whole rental process and put down key money. And basically that’s the only way I thought I could live in Tokyo, because that’s what everybody said. But then I later learned that there are share houses and you don’t have to put down all this big deposit at the start. And it’s also a really great way to meet other people. So I ended up living in my own apartment for the first six months. And then I went and moved into a share house. And I lived in share houses for the rest of my time in Japan.

Caroline: Oh, nice. And did you sew while you were in Japan?

Daisy: Yeah. So one of the first things I bought when I moved in, I bought, like, paid for my apartment, put the deposit down, and then I went onto Amazon and I bought a sewing machine. And then I had some fabric coming from The Fabric Store. I knew it was on its way. So I thought, “I’d better get a sewing machine so I can sew it up and keep sharing my sewing journey, but just from a different perspective of being in a different country and maybe having different influences,” which I definitely had because your style changes based on where you live, because of the fashion or what’s trending, but also what’s appropriate. So because I was teaching English in a school with high school students, I had to dress a little bit modestly. So I would wear a lot of longer skirts and t-shirts or shirts that had full coverage on the neckline and things like that. Just because that was appropriate. I was pretty lucky that I didn’t have to wear a suit every day. I know that some schools had much more formal work attire requirements. But I was really lucky that I was able to still express my personal style, but it just had to be a little bit more modest.

Caroline: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I remember when I was following you back then, my memory of your style was like, a lot of Liberty, a lot of gathers and sort of, like, volume. And I imagine your students all thought you were really cool.

Daisy: Well, I hoped that they thought I was cool. Yeah, I hope, I hope they did. I definitely had some students that, I, I’ve had some students that I’ve spoken to, like, years later. One of them ended up living on the Gold Coast and was looking for a place to live and sent me a message and said, “Hey, did you work at this school?” And I said, “Yeah, why, how did you know that?” And he said, “I’m living on the Gold Coast now. I saw your listing for your, for the rental.” And I was like, “What the heck? That’s crazy.”

Helen: Wow. Small world. Really.

Daisy: It was very small-world situation.

Helen: So tell us a little bit about how you got into sharing content online. When did you start, like, participating in the online sewing community?

Daisy: Well, when I started working at The Fabric Store, one of my responsibilities was to manage the brand ambassador program, which was basically like influencer marketing, but back in 2016, before it was really a big thing. And that was the first time I discovered that you could make money from sharing content, or you could get free stuff from sharing content as a blogger or a fashion blogger online. I sort of knew that fashion bloggers existed, but I didn’t know that brands were, I don’t know why that didn’t really click to me, but I guess because I was on the other side of it, I realized, “Oh, that’s how these people are able to get all of this stuff. It’s because brands are sending it to them sometimes.” And so one day I joked to my coworker, wouldn’t it be funny if I became a sewing blogger called DIY Daisy? I guess I’d been thinking about it a little bit, but I never took it seriously. It was always a bit of a joke, but I thought, “If I want to really understand the sewing community, I need to engage in it. I need to get involved.”

So I was writing blog posts for work. So I understood, these are the kinds of blogs people want. They want pattern reviews, they want tutorials, they want free resources. So I thought, okay, I’ll start making my own clothes and documenting them. I guess I’ve always had a DIY brain. And so I thought, “I can figure out how to make a tutorial.” So I made one and I shared it. And then people in other countries made it too. And I thought, “Wow, okay, this is really rewarding. This is really fun and a cool way to connect with other people that are interested in my hobby, which is sewing.” So I decided that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to start sharing tutorials. I’m going to start sharing resources. And at first it was really just a real passion project. It was just something I would do on the side. And when I was in Japan, I continued to do that and shared the Maya Ruffle Dress. And then shared one or two tutorials every now and then, and other people in the sewing community made them.

So I thought, “Oh, this is really fun. Maybe I’ll just continue doing this.” And then I was offered some fabric in exchange for tagging and posting from a company. And I thought, all right, this is really cool. I’m going to keep doing this, because if I keep sharing, people will keep engaging and maybe brands will reach out to me and give me opportunities or more material so I can keep it up. And that’s sort of what sparked it and then continued motivating me to do it. I guess when I saw other people find joy out of making what I have shared or being inspired by something that I’ve created, then I just wanted to keep going.

Helen: I love that you came to it quite organically, that it was like a joke between you and your coworker. Like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if…” And I think you hit the nail on the head with what people are looking for as far as like looking at projects and they want tutorials and they want free resources and your stuff is so accessible because you are teaching people how to make a garment without them having to purchase a pattern, which is so neat. And we’re going to pivot and talk about your book in a little bit here. But before we do that, we want to hear about your personal style. Because your style is so eye-catching, so recognizable. Like I would know you on the street, if I saw you, in a heartbeat. So can you please describe your personal aesthetic for our listeners?

Daisy: Sure. I think my style has really changed since I started and that is because it’s an evolution. So my style has always been evolving, but I think now what I wear and the things that I make are so uniquely or authentically me and I’ve never created things that I want to wear more. I would say that I’ve always wanted to look like a cartoon. So you know how every day a cartoon wears kind of the same thing? I want to be like that, as in, I kind of have, like, a uniform style. So, cartoon. Colour block, of course. I stopped wearing prints and patterns and I just love being able to play with colour and colour blocking without putting prints and patterns in there. Not that I don’t love them. So I would say, cartoon, colour block, always comfy, and maybe easy as well. Where I live in Australia, it’s really laid back and I don’t have anywhere fancy to go. So maybe every now and then I’ll have somewhere fancy to go. So a lot, like, I always have an elastic waistband. Things are a little bit slouchy and comfy and yeah, so: comfy colour block cartoon cute! I don’t know.

Helen: Yeah, all c words! I love it.

Caroline: So cute. Yeah.

Caroline: Lots of linen, too. I feel like you work with a lot of linen.

Daisy: I love linen and I think when all of the fabric in my wardrobe is the same there’s, it just gives me the ability to have this, kind of, everything feels cohesive. Everything feels like it’s from the same collection of clothes. And that’s what I want because I want it to feel like it all matches and makes sense. So linen is my number one favourite fabric to sew with, but then I do also love a crispy kind of cotton lawn, poplin kind of fabric.

Caroline: Mmhmm.

Daisy: But I definitely don’t have as much of that. I have maybe one or two pieces made out of that fabric, but I have some in my stash that I need to make.

Caroline: Cool. I can’t wait to see it. Yeah, it’s interesting that you talked about your style kind of evolving. Because I’ve definitely noticed that over the years and it’s been really fun to watch. But one of the constants that I’ve also noticed is that you are continuously sharing this tutorial content that you were talking about, sharing your love of crafting. It’s really infectious and I think that a lot of people come to you for inspiration, both style-wise and sewing and crafting. So it makes a lot of sense that you ended up writing a book that was also very inspiring. It’s called Sew It Yourself, and it came out back in 2022. It’s so great. I got my hands on a copy because we provided some of the fabric for the book at Blackbird. And I know it is a coveted book around the office. Everyone is always asking, “Can I borrow it? Can I take it home?” It’s just so, so great. So can you tell us a little bit about how that came to be?

Daisy: Oh, thanks for saying that. It actually makes me so happy to hear that it’s coveted in the Blackbird HQ, because when I reached out to you to ask for some fabric, or ask for some help, that was really scary to do. But I was so grateful that, at how generous you were to share fabric from Blackbird because I was already, like, buying fabric from Blackbird, but just being able to include that in the book and say. like, this is where I get my fabric from as well, it really just added to the fun of all of the garments in the book, especially with those ginghams. And I’m so glad they’re back.

Caroline: Yes.

Helen: Yes, love a gingham.

Daisy: They were so fun. And so all of the pieces, I’ll come back to it, but all the pieces in the book that I made, I gifted out to either the models, my editor, or my close friends. And so every time I see one of those pieces being worn, I just have this lovely feeling of warmth in my heart. So it’s really special. But basically, yeah. So after I moved home from Japan, it was COVID time March 2020. And then for the next nine months, I just shared as much content as possible, because I thought, “I’ve got no job. There’s no jobs happening. And I guess I just have to hang out at home.” And then January 2021, I got an email from Emily, who was my editor. And she said, “Hey Daisy, have you ever considered writing a book?” And I said, “Not really, but I would,” because I looked up Hardie Grant, which is the publisher, and I saw heaps of my favourite creatives in Australia had written books with this publisher. And I thought, if I’m going to write a book, it’s going to be with them. So I said, yes, let’s do it. And Emily was amazing. Basically, she really understood my style. And every time I’ve seen her and met her in real life, I just look at her and go, you get me. She’s always got a bit of gingham on, she’s got colourful style, she has cool earrings, so I just knew straight away that she understood me, she understood my style and what I wanted to say, and it was the perfect match, I think.

So we wrote this book together; she edited all the words and motivated and pushed me along. And so for the first four or five months of 2021, I was a hermit, at home, in my pajamas, writing these tutorials, that, some of them were taken from my blog, so, tutorials I had already shared, and then some of them were totally brand new that I had to develop and figure out how the formula worked. And I wrote it all into this giant document on Google Docs, and then I submitted it off to be edited. And then it went through Emily. It went through a woman called Eugenie, who was like, I feel like she was one of those math wizards or something, she was reading through these formulas as if she was making them and going, “Daisy, you haven’t put, said that right sides are touching there. Are you sure that’s right?” So obviously she was a maker as well. She understood what I was saying and she was able to edit and make sure everything made sense. So that was sort of the process that went: me and Emily worked together, I wrote the manuscript, submitted it, then it went through Emily, Eugenie, and then in that time that it was getting its final edits, it went off to the designer who created all the art, sort of the cover artwork, and put all the pieces together on the pages, and I provided the illustrations that she turned into the illustrations in the book.

And then I had to sew all the garments that went inside that we photographed. So I worked, probably two months of sewing, just sitting in my studio surrounded by piles of fabric and just racks of clothes and half-finished garments. And in that time, it was still COVID lockdown kind of time. So I was planning this photoshoot and I had to get models, and I wanted to make sure that I had lots of different sizes and different body shapes. And then they closed the borders. So two of the models that I was going to work with, one of them was my friend’s sister, and then another one was my art teacher. They both lived in New South Wales, which is on the other side of the border. So they were out. I wasn’t able to work with them to be models in the book, so I had to find two more really last-minute, and make sure that the garments fit them. And I managed to find Maddie, who is a family friend that I didn’t even, I can’t believe I didn’t even think of her. So Maddie is the beautiful girl with freckles and red curly hair in the book, and she is a mathematician, but she’s also a sewist. So, it was really, it felt really natural for her to be in the book and she just brought heaps of energy. And then when we got to the photo shoot my sister and Elle, who was also one of the models in the book, helped me prepare everything. And we drove up to Brisbane, and for two days we shot all the photos and it was so much fun. Also very overwhelming, but a really cool experience. And basically, yeah, we sat, we took all the photos, submitted that, and then it all got turned into a book. And then by January of 2022, I was able to share the news.

Caroline: Oh my gosh, It sounds like an absolute whirlwind!

Daisy: It was.

Caroline: And truly so much work. Like, I admire anyone who writes a book, because it sounds like it’s a ton of work, not to mention a sewing book where you’re having to actually make the projects and then all the photography and all of that. But it came together so beautifully. It is not only gorgeous, but such a great representation of the content you make and your aesthetic. And all of the projects in your book are pattern-free, which is something that you do just regularly in your content. So can you explain what that means?

Daisy: Yeah, so pattern-free, I guess, is like, there are no paper patterns. You’re not tracing anything. You don’t cut out a pattern and lay that on your fabric. It just means that your pattern comes from your body dimensions. So the dimensions of your body, the measurements of your body, and then you put that into a formula and then it tells you how big to make the pattern pieces. And those pattern pieces you will transfer, or you would draw them onto your fabric or onto paper to create your own pattern. So it’s kind of like self-drafting. And I think all sewing sort of starts that way, but most, like, I guess, traditional or, like, mainstream sewing, uses a pattern. But I, I think that when you use your body measurements and use shapes, it’s just, sort of, like, this really stripped-back way of creating a garment. And I don’t know why, I just really love it. It feels like more, it’s like, yes, you have to do a little bit of math, but it’s not scary math. And I just love the challenge of it or like, the mental, the brain workout of it. I don’t want to make it sound hard. It’s really not.

Caroline: Mmhmm.

Helen: You’ve done the hard work by doing all of the, like, breakdown of the formula required. And I think it is a really great entry point for a lot of beginner sewists because the designs are so eye-catching, they’re so approachable, they look very doable. But you’re, like, tricking people into doing pattern drafting.

Daisy: Exactly!

Helen: Yeah, I love it. I think it’s really awesome. And it’s great to, like, get in touch with, yeah, your measurements, your body shape, your body size, and actually be able to make something that fits you without having to fit into this mold of a pattern, which is kind of stressful when you’re starting out.

Daisy: Yes. And I think also, because when you self-draft it for yourself, like you said, you’re, you’re learning how to draft a pattern. At its core, all clothing is made from shapes. And so when you start sewing in this way, it’s like you turn your brain into this pattern identifying, self-drafting identifying machine. And you’ll go to the shops and you’ll see a skirt on the hanger and you’ll go, “Oh my gosh, that’s made out of two rectangles.” And you’ll see something and you’ll go, “Oh, that’s a trapezoid, but that’s got a little semicircle cut out there.” So. It’s like, yeah, you’re tricking your brain into seeing how clothing is put together from the blocks, and then you carve away a little bit on the side to make the arm hole, or you cut out a neck hole, or you add some shape here by making it a trapezoid. Yeah, it’s just patternmaking.

Helen: No, I’m, like, thinking right now how adorable it is that, like, your aesthetic is, like, giving primary school and like, but also like, you’re talking about these basic building blocks of shapes. And I’m picturing, like, literal, like, children’s toy building blocks, like the square and the column and the triangle. And you, like, build these structures with them and they’re all these bright colours. It’s so perfectly you and for some reason it just, like, it all comes together. It just clicks.

Daisy: I think so.

Helen: Do you have any tips for people working with, like, pattern-free instructions? Is the process different in any way?

Daisy: When you are self-drafting a pattern, you have to let go of any expectations that you have that the final garment is going to be absolutely perfect. And I think that applies to anything that you sew, with a pattern or with a self-drafted pattern. That pattern, if it’s one of mine, or I guess if it’s self-drafted using shapes like squares and rectangles…your body isn’t squares and rectangles. So your body is curvy and it has contours and it’s not square, straight and up and down. So you have to forget the idea that it’s going to fit you perfectly and lose those expectations that whatever you create is going to be runway ready or look amazing and someone’s going to call you up and ask you to be on the front cover of Vogue or something like that. I think, yeah. So like, let go of any expectations and just think, “I’m making something” and “I’m going to create something.” I always say to make a toile, make a practice version when you are self-drafting, because In my case, the formulas are based off of my body and I’m only one size, so I can only base it off my size. And someone might have a different proportion of their, their body shape. So they might be bigger up the top and smaller down the bottom, or they might be one size all the way through. So you have to adjust things to work for you.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I mean that’s the case for all sewing projects, pattern or, or no pattern or self-drafted. Be ready to make adjustments and go through that process and, and you’ll end up with a better garment in the end. I really see you as kind of like a gateway into the sewing community for beginner sewists because I think your content is so accessible, a lot of it is free. I don’t know, it’s just like, you really pull people in and I think that your love of sewing and crafting is really infectious. And I wonder if you have advice for new sewists out there who are just starting out?

Daisy: Well, the same advice that I just mentioned, like, lose any expectations. Don’t expect that you’re going to be a master at this new craft as soon as you start it. Maybe you will be the exception and you’ll figure it out really quickly. But anything that you start as a beginner, I think it’s really good to be a beginner because it’s like training your brain: again, you’re, you’re not always going to be the master of something. And so, when you’re starting out, especially in sewing, be kind to yourself and just see it as a way for you to express yourself. Use skills that you maybe haven’t used for a while, sewing in a straight line or doing a little bit of maths, and let go of any feelings or expectations that you have that whatever you create is going to be perfect the first time. That’s probably my main thing. And I, when I used to teach workshops, I would always say something along those lines at the start. “You’re just here to create today. You’re here to make something for yourself.” It’s a little bit of self-care and it’s just something that you can do to give a little bit of love to your brain. And if you end up with a wearable garment at the end, then even better.

Helen: Yeah, that’s like a bonus extra if that happens to work out. Yeah, that is really good advice. It’s hard in, any time you’re trying a new thing, to put down that expectation that you’re going to be excellent at it. I know from personal experience I always want to be good at something when I try it for the first time, but it is a learning process. I’m wondering, of all the projects you’ve included in your book do you have one that stands out that you wear most often?

Daisy: Well, it’s really funny that you ask that because I don’t wear many of the things from my book anymore. My, my style has really changed, it’s evolved. Like I said at the start, it’s evolved a lot from when I originally wrote the book. That was a couple of years ago now. And I’m a little bit older and I’ve embraced my body a little bit more. So I still love all of the things that I’ve created in the book, and the Maya Ruffle Dress will always be one that holds a very special place in my heart, but the two pieces that I still have in my wardrobe and I wear the most: the Rosebud Raglan Top, which is named after my grandmother, Rosalie, and the Kama Dress. So the Kama Dress is made from squares again, and I made one of those to wear to my book launch party, and I also made one to wear to Frocktails recently. And I ended up wearing it to the TikTok awards with my friend Tom, and I’m going to wear it again soon to another event that I’m going to, so I would say that they are the most worn, but throughout my whole journey, I’ve worn all of the different projects in there heaps and different frequencies and amounts, but yeah, my style has changed quite a bit since I wrote all of those projects. So it’s like a little time capsule of my style from 2018 to 2022, maybe.

Helen: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I can relate. Doing our patterns, I always get really obsessed with a certain pattern when we’re working on it. And then it’s always evolving because you’re a designer and you’re coming up with new things. So we’re always excited to see what you come up with next. Okay. Let’s take a quick break and we’ll be right back.

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And we’re back. Okay Daisy, we’d love to talk a little bit more about your personal sewing. And one thing we noticed is that you use a lot of secondhand fabrics. And I know you like a thrift store, an op shop as y’all call them down there. Do you have any tips for finding good stuff at the op shop?

Daisy: Ooh, yes, I mean, this has been, I’ve been op shopping for so long now that I’ve really nailed it. It’s an art form to me at this point. One of the things that I’ve learned is that when you have a list, it could be a mental list. It could be a physical list that you have written down on some paper. You should have a list of what you are really looking for so that you kind of focus in and you really hone in on what you really need. It’s so easy to go to the op shop and just buy every cool thing that you find. But are you actually going to use it? Are you really going to sew with it? Or is it just going to sit in your stash for years and then collect dust and wonder why you picked it up when you could have left it behind for someone else to discover? So having a list is so important. And I feel like when you sort of speak or manifest that list out into the world, the op shop gods are going to hear you. And so I do, I have that list now. I have, it’s either a mental list or it’s little notes on my phone and it helps me to stay focused when I go in there. I always beeline it for the craft section because I usually know what I’m looking for, it might be there. So at the moment I’ve been looking for beads. I just go straight there. I’m looking for beads. But if I’m looking for linen I’ll look in the fabric section, but I often find linen in the clothing aisles or the clothing racks, and then I’m able to take the linen out of that and cut it out, cut out the fabric and repurpose it that way. So have a list and go straight to where you’re looking. Be focused.

Helen: I love this idea of having a, like, ongoing list that you can reference because it is so overwhelming and it’s easy to get sidetracked.

Daisy: It is. Yes.

Helen: I was watching your stories recently where you went to an op shop to get beads, like you’re saying, and somebody there, like, helped you find a bunch more beads that were in the back. So also, you know, asking the people that work there where the thing is that you’re looking for, they might know a secret stash.

Daisy: Mmhmm.

Caroline: We noticed you’ve also been doing a lot of patchwork recently, and it’s been so cool to see all of your projects. We wanted to ask you about your hexie quilt and how it’s been going.

Daisy: Yeah. So my hexie quilt is, I think you would call it, a third of the way finished, but that is a project I started back in lockdown. So in 2020 I thought, I love Liberty fabric. I would like to use it in a different way instead of just making clothes. And I discovered The Strawberry Thief, which is another fabric. store in Australia and they sell exclusively Liberty of London fabric. And I reached out to Robin for Sew It Yourself as well. And she provided some Liberty for the book. And around that same time we connected, she offered to get me started on a Liberty hexie quilt. So she sent me the first kit to get started and I was hooked. And I thought, “This is something that I’ll just work away at every month.” But of course, I got busy and I left it and I sort of forgot about it for a while and I probably had 30 Hexie flowers complete and they sat there for two years. But at the end of last year, I read this quote, by Rachel Burke, who is an artist here in Australia. She’s from Brisbane/Mianjin. And she said, “Stop hoarding your craft supplies and make something.” And so that’s kind of my, it’s my mantra, for the year. And I thought, I better get working on that hexie quilt and really make some serious progress on it. So I started sort of letting people know I’m working on it again. And people were cheering me on through the comments. And I felt like, all right, I’m going to do this. So I think I sewed about five or six flowers a week, sometimes more. And now I’ve sewn 96 hexie flowers because I want to make a queen sized quilt. And now I’m at the part where I have to stitch all the flowers together.

Helen: Oh my gosh. Yeah, hexie quilts, I feel like, are notorious for languishing in a pile because they do take so much work to get through making all those hexes.

Daisy: Have you made one?

Helen: I have not. I’m very intimidated. But it’s on my list, maybe one day. I wonder if you could explain to our listeners the process, like if they’ve never seen a hexie quilt and they don’t know what you’re talking about. How do you go about making these little flowers?

Daisy: So basically, you start with these pre-cut, they could be laser cut or you could cut them out yourself, hexagons of fabric. And I’m using two inch hexagons because I thought that would be faster, but it hasn’t really made it any faster. So you start with these hexagons of fabric and then you get these hexagons of paper. It’s sort of, it’s card, but they call it English paper piecing. And on the back of one of the hexagons, you kind of glue the edges and then you fold those edges onto the card so that you have this little stiff hexagon. And the reason you put the paper in or the card in is to hold the shape while you sew the hexagons together. So you start by sewing two together and you just sew along one edge, then you fold it out and then you add another petal and then you sort of go around in a circle and you sew all the petals together until you have a hexie flower. And the hexie flower has seven hexagons in it and they all have the card so they’re all a little bit stiff. And a lot of people have said to me, “What about the paper? Are you going to just quilt that in there?” And you actually take that paper out when it’s time to quilt. So all of the flowers, you stitch those together with the paper inside and then you remove the paper and you have your nice quilt topper.

Helen: Yeah, I feel like that’s the moment where you call all your friends over to help you remove the paper from your hexie quilt.

Daisy: Yes, I will definitely be doing that because it’s going to be, there’s, what’s 96 times 7?

Helen: Don’t do it. Don’t do the math, Daisy.

Daisy: 96 times 7 pieces of paper card to remove from the back of these flowers. So it’s going to be, that’s going to be a big one.

Caroline: Wow.

Helen: Yeah, they are a labour of love, but the result is so beautiful. And when you say that you’re sewing them together, you’re doing it by hand, right?

Daisy: Yeah. It’s been really meditative, actually, and just, you don’t even realize that you’re doing it after you really get started. I’ve just been watching Netflix or I’ll take it to, we went and watched our friends play music at a little pub and I just stitched away while they played.

Helen: Amazing.

Daisy: So you can kind of do it anywhere because they’re not so big.

Helen: Yeah, it’s true. They are really nice and portable. I’ve seen, like, lots of cool organizational, like, toolboxes for all the little hexies and stuff that you can really get creative with that part of it too. So all of them are Liberty prints and they look absolutely gorgeous. Do you have a method for how to combine them or are you just going totally random?

Daisy: I’m going totally random. At first I was following the advice of Robin from The Strawberry Thief. And she said, “Try to put dark hexie in the middle and then light hexies on the outside or vice versa,” or you could do a colour combination, but it’s all about balance. So trying to get warm colours, cool colours, dark hexies, light hexies. And I think when there’s a mixture of all of that in one flower, when they’re all put together into one quilt top, it will be really nice and balanced and scrappy and patchy. Cause that’s, that’s what I want. I want it to be a rainbow.

Helen: Yeah. Oh my gosh. It’s going to be amazing. I can’t wait to see it.

Daisy: I can’t wait to see it.

Caroline: You mentioned that your mantra for the year is to, kind of, use your supplies, like, you know, not let those things sort of sit around. I think on your Instagram, you sort of announced that 2024 is your year of DIY. Can you explain what that is?

Daisy: Have you ever heard about how people have a word that they set for the year? Like and it makes it…yeah?

Caroline: Yeah.

Daisy: So I did that last year. My word, I said a word, that was the first time I’ve ever done it. And you know what? It really helped me stay motivated to do what my word was. So as I came to the end of 2023, I started thinking, what could my word for next year be? And I came across that quote again, that “Stop hoarding your craft supplies and make something.” And I thought, you know what, this is going to be the year that I just make, I’m just going to make everything. So I decided to make my word “Do it yourself, DIY,” I guess it’s three words, but it applies to so many things. So for me, it’s…and it’s not just about making stuff and stop hoarding my craft supplies, but it’s also stop ordering Uber Eats and make your own dinner, because I will get into a craft spiral and I won’t want to get out of my studio. And I just want to keep sewing or I want to keep making. And so I’ll just order Uber Eats, but that is so lazy. So, yeah, so I guess it’s applying that word that you pick. In my case, I try to pick one that will apply to many areas of my life. And so this year, it’s all about using what I have. I have, I’ve collected a lot of craft supplies over the years and things that just sit in my cupboard because,”Oh, I’ll get to it one day,” or “I’ll get time to do that at some point.” And so I decided to sort of set myself this creative challenge, a personal creative challenge so that I could have a goal and sort of a schedule that I could try and stick to. And so my year of DIY kind of has a couple of subheadings. One of them is my gallery wall and to, to make something for my gallery wall every month.

I have a prompt word each month and that prompt word, it could be a crafty material, or it could be a type of crafting. So I’ve set those for each month of the year and it’s giving me kind of this direction. So I know in January, my focus is hexagons. So all I have to do is make stuff related to hexagons. In February, this month, it’s cardboard. So I’m going to try and do some projects that use cardboard because I have all these boxes lying around. I can make other things in the month as well, but essentially I want to use the things that I have in each of those months. So next month is beads, and I’ve been collecting beads because I have some ideas to make projects with beads.

And this has all sort of come from pitching a second book. So I pitched a second book and I went in a little bit of a different direction and I wanted it to be like DIY decor or kind of a follow-up to Sew It Yourself, but not clothing–making homewares and decor items. And unfortunately, they weren’t interested in that book, So I thought, “Well, I’ve got all these ideas. I’m just going to share them for free!” And a lot of the ideas that I’ve shared so far and the ones that I have for the rest of the year are from that pitch. But as I’ve been doing this year of DIY it’s like, because I’m flexing that creativity muscle or that DIY muscle, my creativity has been insane. I’ve opened up the floodgates or I’ve, I’ve come out of this…I was in this really big burnout after writing the book and it really took me a long time to feel like I wanted to create again. And I feel like finally I’m there and all of these ideas and new ideas that weren’t even on the pitch are just coming out of me. And so I have to let them keep flowing.

Helen: I absolutely love this. And you know that publisher is going to come crawling back in a year and be like, “I want to do it. Let’s do it.”

Caroline: It’s their loss. My goodness.

Daisy: But I think, I think I could put all of that stuff into a book and sell the book again, but one of the things that got me started as DIY Daisy and helped me grow to where I am now and even get that opportunity to share and to create Sew It Yourself in the first place was sharing those free resources. So now I’m just doing it more for, there’s no goal. I don’t want to put them into the form of a book. I just want to share this inspiration and these ideas so that it exists. And then anybody that wants them can get them for free. And if they inspire an idea for you, or if they encourage you to make a shadow shelfie or a whatever, or a hexie flower, or, or get interested in hexie quilting and English paper piecing, then my job is done. And it’s so rewarding to share those, those free resources. I’m sure you know, as well, like, when you give a list of where to buy cool fabrics or free sewing patterns, when you share that stuff and give people the tools that they need to start on a craft that you love so much, it’s so rewarding.

Caroline: Yeah, it is incredible. And can others join in on the challenge? Like, have you released your monthly prompts for the year? Is this something you’re encouraging?

Daisy: Yeah! At first I wasn’t really encouraging it. Like at first I just, I just wanted to do it for myself because I wanted to see if I could do it. But then people started saying, “Oh, I want to have a go.” And because I’m sharing the one tutorial for my gallery wall each month, there’s actually been more than one so far, but people have used a couple of them. And so, I’d say yes, you can definitely join in. The prompt list is on my story highlights and there are only two months that I don’t have prompts for. So that’s November and December, but I’ve got a while till I get there. I can figure out what those prompts might be. Yeah, so there’s, so next month is beads and the month after that is paint, so. There’s so many things you can paint, but I have a couple of fun and really easy projects in mind that use some found materials or things you might find at the thrift store or at the op shop. So hopefully it will become a thing and people might join in with me.

Caroline: Ooh, that’s so awesome. And this episode, we’re recording a little bit in advance, so this episode’s coming out in April, which: paint, right?

Daisy: Paint is April. So, I’ve actually been collecting all this furniture that I want to repaint as well. So there’s always going to be one project that goes on my gallery wall, but then there are other projects that fit into that prompt that also use paint. So stay tuned.

Helen: So fun. I love that you’re branching out into other things. And of course, your name, DIY Daisy, is just perfect for anything. Literally. Yeah. So good. Well, one of the other things we wanted to talk about a little bit is social media, because you do such a great job with your photos, your fun off-the-cuff videos. You’re very personable. And we sometimes hear from listeners that they’re having a hard time making social media content that maybe resonates with the sewing community or not really knowing how to interact with the new sewing community, as it were, very video-focused. What are your thoughts on that? Do you have any advice for folks out there?

Daisy: Yeah. It really has changed a lot since, since we started back in, well, I started back in 2016, I think it was, but it’s really changed the way that, I guess it’s to do with the algorithm and the fact that they really want videos. So I guess my advice would be to embrace it. Maybe you don’t want to talk on the, on video. That’s okay. Don’t talk. You can do a voiceover or you can just write a caption. I think whatever your goals are, so if your goal is to be a sewing content creator, then the way that you make content might be different. But if you just want to participate in the sewing community and connect with other people and get inspired or learn new things, then I don’t think you necessarily have to make video. Just share however feels comfortable for you. I would say, find somewhere that you can be consistent and take a photo of your garment or your finished project or find somewhere that you have good lighting so that you can set up your camera and film or ask a friend to film you. I always used to go, when I was out and about and I would see a colourful wall, I would ask a friend, “Oh, can you take a couple of photos of me in front of that colourful wall?” And that’s just how I captured those outfit shots. But if you want to be, like, a content creator and your goal is to work with brands or get some free fabric or something like that, then the way that you share content, your goals, should probably be different, which would be, I would say, you need to give something back to the sewing community. So I guess it could be inspiration or it could be resources and education or entertainment. It could be any, it could be any of those things. Yeah, it just depends what you want to be online,

Helen: Yeah, you really don’t have to be everything to everyone either. Like you said, if you don’t want to talk to the camera, you can do top-down videos showing tutorial content. If you have a strong sense of humour, a strong point of view, comedic timing, then yeah, maybe you’re more entertainment. If you really enjoy putting together outfits, you can be more inspiration-based, but there’s lots of different things you can do. And you’re so comfortable, it seems, in front of the camera. Have you always felt that ease or did that come with time?

Daisy: No, I started off, I would hear myself and go, “Ew, is that my voice?” But when we were in that lockdown time, I mean, I’ve always been, everyone will always say, “Daisy’s a little bit dramatic.” I’m very expressive. And dad always jokes, “Isn’t it lucky we sent you to drama class?” Like that’s, that’s like one of his running jokes. ‘Cause I’m apparently very, very, very dramatic. But when I started hearing myself talk on camera I was, I would cringe and I would think, “Is that what my voice sounds like?” But then I started just doing my op shop hauls on my stories and I would just practice and start to get more comfortable with what I sounded like and then it just sort of became a little bit more natural. But one thing that I always try to keep in mind and, an old friend shared this with me, is when you’re talking to your stories, pretend you’re talking to a really good friend or pretend you’re talking to your sister. So I will, the way that I do a story as if it’s, as if I’m speaking to my twin sister, Aurora, on FaceTime, so you’re kind of getting a sister chat, if I’m sharing on my stories. I’m just, I speak to my stories like I’m speaking to her and it comes out very naturally. And then I can listen back to it and think, “Oh, I don’t sound weird.”

Helen: I’ve never noticed you sounding weird, but no, I mean, even just doing this podcast, like it’s, I listen back to the episodes, not all of them, but it is so weird hearing your own voice and you, you cringe at all of the little things that nobody else notices.

Daisy: Exactly.

Caroline: It takes time to get used to it, I think. But once you like, it’s like muscle memory or I don’t know, like exposure therapy or something.

Daisy: Yeah. But it’s also practice, right? Because I, I remember I used to use a lot of filler words, and even now I’ll pick up on days where I’m using, obviously “and like” are filler words, but I’ll pick up on days where I say “you know” a lot, sometimes it happens because you might have a conversation with someone who uses those filler words quite a little bit more. And so then you, you subconsciously, it gets buried in your brain and you have to use those as well. So some days I’ll, I’ll hear myself using all these filler words and I’ll go, “Oh, what am I doing? Stop saying um!” And then other days I’m, I’m really having a good flow and I’m just talking like, like I’m a genius or something.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: I love it

Helen: You’re like, “I am nailing this.”

Daisy: Exactly.

Caroline: That was an excellent tip though. I’m, I’m going to use that because I find the hardest content to make is when I’m, I’m, you know, staring at the camera and talking to it and trying to connect with an audience. And thinking about talking to my sister or my friend, I feel like that would make it so much easier. So I’m going to try that.

Daisy: It really does. Yeah.

Caroline: So what’s next for DIY Daisy, other than this huge challenge that you’re doing this year?

Daisy: Well, I think that’s kind of it. Like, I just want to get through this year and know that I’ve created and I’ve shared. It’s bringing me a lot of joy by just creating and seeing other people enjoy what I’m making. That’s always been what my, my goal is. I just want to be happy and I just want to have a happy, colourful, creative life. And I want to experience lots of things that other people have made as well. So I don’t have any plans to write another book. I don’t have any plans to go on any adventures. I’m just, I sort of like, I’m focusing on my work and I really love my work as well. And I’m just, I don’t know. I just, I want to cook more. I want to make more and connect more. And that’s, that’s kind of all my goal is right now. Nothing else. Oh, and actually I want to grow some flowers. I’m growing flowers.

Caroline: Ooh!

Helen: Ooh! That’s very on-brand. No, gardening is amazing. I absolutely love growing flowers.

Caroline: Well, we can’t wait to follow along with you on your creating and making journey over the next year and beyond. Can you tell our listeners where they can find you online, where they can follow along?

Daisy: So I’m @_diydaisy on Instagram and TikTok and I’m diydaisy.com.

Caroline: Amazing. And if you want to check out Daisy’s book, it’s called Sew It Yourself. And yeah, we’ll link all of this up in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Daisy. It was such a pleasure.

Daisy: Thanks for having me.

Caroline: Bye.

Helen: Thank you. Take care. Bye.

That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Helen, at Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co. and Caroline at Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns. We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Caroline: You can support Love to Sew and get access to bonus content by subscribing on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. You even get access to the back catalogue of bonus episodes. That’s over 75 hours of Love to Sew. Go to patreon.com/lovetosew or check out our podcast page on Apple Podcasts for more info.

Helen: Head to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. If you’d like to get in touch with us, leave us a message at 1-844-SEW-WHAT. That’s 1-844-739-9428 or send us an email at hello@lovetosewpodcast.com.

Caroline: Thank you to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant, Jordan Moore of The Pod Cabin is our editor. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Helen: Bye bye!

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