Sew famous: How a sewing lady amassed 60k followers

With 60,000 Instagram followers, Gold Coast ‘sewist’ Daisy Braid is determined to make sewing cool again.

If you haven’t heard, sewing is cool.

Gold Coast self-taught “sewist” Daisy Braid has been riding a wave of a DIY, up-cycling, op-shop altering resurgence all the way to her first book, that has recently been released in the UK and US.

Braid, of Elanora, a business and marketing graduate, former ski instructor and English teacher, started playing around with fabric remnants and offcuts on her grandmother’s sewing machine as a child.

But it wasn’t until she went to live with her fashion designer aunt in Auckland, New Zealand, as a balm to a broken heart, that Braid got her first real hands-on experience of the fashion, business and marketing world.

Gold Coast ‘sewist’ Daisy Braid who has written a book titled Sew it Yourself. Picture: Lalanya Robinson

A planned three-month trip turned into two years and after going on to work in New Zealand as a media and design manager for The Fabric Store, Braid started publishing sewing tutorials on her Instagram page as DIY Daisy.

She then spent two years as an English teacher in Japan, returning to Australia in March 2020 when borders were being closed due to Covid.

She picked up work in content creation for various fabric stores and companies and her tutorials and growing Instagram following (now at 60,000 followers) brought her to the attention of publishers Hardie Grant, who offered her a book deal early last year.

Her book, Sew It Yourself, sold out in Australia and has now been released in the US and UK markets.

“Sewing has had such a resurgence, especially with the pandemic when people realised that home sewists are everywhere,’’ Braid says.

“Everyone went back to baking and pasta making and it was also the chance to learn how to knit or sew or do tie dye.

“Everyone went back to these old crafts that can be so enjoyable and satisfying and it’s also a form of self care.

“Creativity is so good for the soul.’’

Braid, 29, grew up on the Gold Coast with her identical twin sister Aurora and younger siblings Amaya, 25, and David, 21, and their parents Kiri, 54, and David, 62.

Her mum, who now works in tourism, was a chef in her own health food restaurant at Palm Beach for many years, while her dad worked in computer technology.

Braid’s first sewing experience came from a sewing machine bought by her paternal grandmother Jill. Her maternal grandmother Rosalie was also a keen quilter.

Gold Coast sewist Daisy Braid. Picture: Lalanya Robinson

Braid attended St Andrews Lutheran College at Tallebudgera and strapped on her first ski boots at age five at Mt Hutt on New Zealand’s South Island. Skiing was part and parcel of growing up, with her family going on annual ski trips to Thredbo and Perisher resorts in the Snowy Mountains, in southeast NSW.

While studying her business degree at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, Braid continued her snow sports lifestyle, travelling to Japan each snow season to work.

After graduating, Braid then lived and worked in Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, in 2014 and 2015 as a ski instructor. Her brother David and sister Aurora currently both work at Jindabyne as a bartender and boot fitter, respectively. Her sister Amaya is a nurse.

After moving to Melbourne to live with a boyfriend, Braid returned to Queensland “a shell of my former self’’ after their break-up left her devastated.

“Mum and Dad were very worried about me,’’ Braid says.

“They said they didn’t know who I was anymore, that I was so negative, and that I had sort of lost who I was.

“Mum suggested that I move to Auckland … and spend time with my aunty Caroline Marr, a fashion designer who runs a plus-size fashion label and has been in the industry for more than 20 years.

“So I decided to go and live with her in 2016 and basically I was like her intern. I started doing her social media and we did events together, she taught me how production works, I took fabric to the cutter and she let me be involved in choosing fabric.

“I was just living with her for free but working for her, that was how I paid my rent.”

This experience led Braid to other work opportunities, as well as her time in Japan as an assistant language teacher in Tokyo where she enjoyed exploring the city’s fabric district.

On her return to Australia in 2020, Braid was put to work helping her dad with house renovations, painting walls and “thinking about what I was going to do”.

“The only way I was going to get out of helping him was saying I had to do a blog post today,” Braid says.

“I had a really big stash of fabric from Japan and New Zealand and I started working my way through it, making outfits, sharing some tutorials as a cool way to share your love of something and hopefully get other people involved and inspired.’’

Braid picked up some work in content creation for fabric stores and among her DIY tutorials was a popular scrunchie headband for Melbourne clothing label Obus.

She began working at The Craft Parlour at Burleigh Heads and thought she could perhaps eke out a living as a sewing content creator or turn her tutorials into patterns she could sell.

But Hardie Grant came calling in January 2021, keen to put her tutorials into a book format. With no experience of writing a book, Braid jumped at the chance.

The first draft was completed by June last year, with Braid then making dozens of pieces of clothing, accessories and props to be photographed for inclusion in the book. The whole project was complete by the end of 2021.

Daisy Braid’s book has been released in the UK and US.

“It was pretty fast. I was like a factory – I made about 40 pieces – clothing, accessories, props, hair bands. Every piece you see in the book,” she says.

“The book has now actually sold out and it was reprinted before it was officially launched because of strong presales.” More copies are expected to be available this week.

Braid now works as a social media manager for the Finders Keepers Markets that support emerging designers and makers with events held biannually in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. She also displays her own products at the markets, including metal lapel pins, art prints and wall hangings.

DIY scrunchies from Daisy Braid’s book titled Sew it Yourself.

She has been offered another book deal but wants to take a bit of time to absorb what she’s achieved, to think of new ideas and give some time to the people nearest and dearest to her who supported her during the book’s development.

“This was my first time writing a book and it was hard work,” Braid says.

“As the author or face of the book, as well as my full-time job, almost every day in the lead up to its publication, I would post content about the book to get people excited.

“I had so much anxiety about the book being out in the world, I just hoped people liked it.

“So I need a little bit of time off … balance is important to me.

“I work in social media and my side hustle is in social media so my goal is to have some solid me time and to put some time back into the people who supported me when I was really busy writing.”

Sewing may have always been cool to sewists but now, Braid says, she is thrilled to see more people embracing the skills of DIY.

“There is a lot of interest in up-cycling and op shopping and finding vintage pieces,’’ she says.

“People are becoming more aware of how clothes are made and of sustainability and also the people who make the clothes.

“When you make your own clothes, you realise how much goes into it.”

Daisy Braid will be at the next Finders Keepers Markets in Brisbane on Sep 2-4. Sew It Yourself, Hardie Grant Books, $33, available from book stores nationally