My Story, From the Beginning.
Hi, I’m Danni I thought it was time I told you the story behind Danni Rose, because it’s changed a lot over the years and honestly, so have I.
I’ve been sewing for over 15 years, but Danni Rose started back in 2018 when I was working in retail and spending my weekends sewing clothes to sell at local markets. It was very much a side hustle. I’d work during the week, then spend my evenings and weekends sewing, packing the car and heading off to markets with a rail of clothes I had made myself.
I absolutely loved it. There was something so exciting about someone choosing to spend their money on something I had designed and sewn with my own two hands. It made me wonder, what if I actually gave this a proper go?
So in 2019, Danni Rose was officially born. Over the next couple of years, the business grew far beyond what I ever imagined. By 2021, I took Danni Rose full time, making clothes to order and supplying nine retail stores around New Zealand. I had my own studio and two other sewers helping me keep up with the demand. It was a dream I had worked really hard for, and from the outside, everything was going incredibly well. But I think sometimes you can be successful at something and still wonder if it’s actually what you want.
By late 2022, I found myself questioning whether I was on the right path. I decided to step away from Danni Rose and take a corporate job selling houses. I thought maybe this was what I needed. A proper career. A different challenge. Something more stable. Instead, I ended up working around 12 hour days and completely burning myself out over the next 2.5 years.
Eventually, I reached a point where I knew something had to change. I cancelled my wedding, booked a six week overseas trip and gave myself some space away from everything. And somewhere in those six weeks, I realised something that had been sitting right in front of me the whole time. I missed Danni Rose. While I had been so focused on my corporate career, I had barely been keeping my own business alive. And yet, when I finally stepped away from everything, it was the thing I couldn't stop thinking about.
I realised that Danni Rose wasn't just a little business I had started on the side. It was what I actually wanted. So I came home, quit my corporate job and started sewing full time again.
Not long after that, I found out I was pregnant with my little boy, Hudson. Becoming a mum made me look at Danni Rose in a completely different way again. I loved creating clothes, but I no longer wanted a business that depended on me sitting at my sewing machine for eight hours a day just to keep up with orders.
I wanted to build something that could grow with me and fit around my life. And that’s when the idea of digital sewing patterns really started to make sense. I could take everything I had learnt over the years; designing, pattern making, sewing, fitting and all the lessons I had learnt from running a clothing label, and turn it into something that could help other people make their own clothes.
And honestly, it feels like everything has come full circle.
I remember being a beginner sewer myself and finding sewing patterns and written instructions so overwhelming. I’m a very visual learner, and I know how frustrating it can be to look at a pattern and think, "Am I even doing this right?" That’s why creating genuinely beginner friendly sewing patterns has become such a huge part of what I do. I want to help you go from sewing your first tote bag to sewing your very first dress. I want you to feel like you can do it, even if you’ve never made your own clothes before.
Because there’s something pretty special about putting on something you’ve made yourself and being able to say: "thanks, I made it.”
That’s what Danni Rose is all about now. It’s still about beautiful clothes and creativity, but it’s also about giving you the confidence to make them yourself.
From sewing clothes at weekend markets while working in retail, to running a full-time clothing label with a studio and a team, to leaving it all behind, burning out, starting again and now building a business around being a mum, Danni Rose has changed a lot over the years. But the one thing that has never changed is my love for sewing. And I’m so excited that now I get to share that with you.
Thanks for being here. Danni xx
