Ommel 2019 – The first day

Today was finally the long expected opening of the Ommel 2019 sewing festival here in my home city of Espoo. Together with over 50 volunteers, I spend a big part of Thursday building the festival: carrying stuff, threading sewing machines, hanging signs, whatever was needed to welcome the thousands of visitors that are expected to attend. However, the biggest work was already done by the wonderful board of the Ommel ry (registered association), lead by Jenni Salminen.

So many workshops

My family attended with three generations of enthusiastic sewists: me, my daughter and my mother, who joined us a bit later in the afternoon. Today’s main goal for us was to get S acquainted with the workshops and to get some kind of idea of the fabrics and activities that were available.

The first thing to do was to lead S into the design workshop of the Finnish sewing and crafting magazine Suuri Käsityö. There we spend an hour creating designs for children’s wear. This was one of the main attractions for S who loves to design outfits. Then we moved into the leather workshop just next door. S learned how to sew a little coin purse out of leather, using real leatherworking techniques taught by the teachers and students of Ammattiopisto Tavastia (Tavastia Vocational College).

Fabric shopping

While S was busy sewing with leather, I had a chance to go around the festival area with my mother. I was happy to find out that many fabric companies had broadened their selection with woven fabrics. This lovely bright floral cotton sateen by Tuulena design was one of the first to catch my eye.

In the next booth, Flowi design was launching a new collection of fabrics with a unique approach to fabric design. The fabrics that will soon be available have been designed together with sewing patterns so that thought has already been given to how the pattern matching would best work with the pattern and the fabric.

The theme of Nordic design was present with fabric and sewing patterns from Sweden. Above are Elvelyckan and MW Patterns that, among others, were both new to me.

In addition to our new Swedish friends, there were a lot of old acquaintances. Here is Ommellinen,

and Viikuna:

and, of course, Nuppu:

Finally, I bought two fabrics. The floral cotton sateen by Tuulena and the black and white marble patterned cotton jersey by Mereen that I could use to make a teeshirt for my husband:

Happy makers

After our round, we found that S had finished her leather project and moved to the stuffed toys workshop where she was already finishing a cute little bunny.

I was so taken by the creativity of these youngsters. This is one proud little maker had designed this little elf-like creature and wanted me to take a picture of it:

S forbid me to take a picture of her little bunny and I will respect her wishes.

Tomorrow, it will be a new day at Ommel. Hopefully, I get to try out some new techniques and perhaps find fabrics for my kids. Both I and S are also modelling in the fashion show, which will be an exciting new experience for us both!

Thank you for reading and if you are coming to Ommel 2019 this weekend, don’t hesitate to stop me and have a chat!

Katja