Suomen Kädentaidot – Finnish Craft & Design

Yesterday, I spend almost the whole day with my parents browsing the booths at the Finnish Craft & Design fair in Tampere. Here are some tidbits of the selection. I must admit that one day was way too short to go through the whole fair. I had to skip quite a bit since I run out of time!

According to the website, the number of exhibitors was over 600 and they were expecting over 50 000 visitors. The Friday was the first day and I hoped that the weekday would reduce the crowd size to the bearable level. I was correct. Even if the place was pretty crowded, I was able to squeeze in to browse the selections of the interesting booths quite easily.

The selection ranged from the fashion design all the way to paper crafts and wood work. Thus, the selection for a sewist wasn’t as large as you could have expected. However, there were still plenty of fabrics, mostly printed jersey or sweatshirting (like Iloinen Kettuliini above), sewing machines and notions. Ommel ry had a booth where you could sew hats for charity, or if you were a child, for yourself.

The close approach of Christmas was showing in many of the booths. Here are some Christmassy jerseys from Nuppu Print Company.

The main stage had several fashion shows. I managed to see the Novita fashion show with some amazing knitwear.

Knitters were rewarded with a huge selection of yarns. I was a bit envious since nowadays my shoulders can’t stand knitting. There were also threads for embroidery and bobbin lace makers. The delicious colour selection in the picture above is made by the silk threads from Jatan Aitta.

HAMK or Häme University of Applied Sciences had gone modern and printed embroidery frames with a 3D printer. They had a free workshop where you could make your own reflector or a piece of jewellery by using the 3D printed frame as a starting point. Here are the examples made by me, my mother and my father. Yes, even my dad took part! #HAMK #ominkäsin

Finally, my purchases were not very big. As I was travelling alone by a bus (my parents came by car and stayed overnight at my aunt’s) I couldn’t carry a lot. I got some pretty floral jersey from Lalia for S and Paapii jersey and ribbing for both of my kids. As I had just broken my previous Prym bobbin box, I got a new one. I also found seam tape that I have been looking for for a while. As non-sewing related purchases, I also got a wooden handmade spatula for the kitchen, since my old ones are starting to break and a little reflective piece of jewellery to decorate my winter outfits.

Thank you for reading! I wish you a lovely weekend and hope that you come back soon! Happy Sewing!

Katja