Seamstress and doll maker Aili Mattus, né Saijets, was born in 1887 into the family of Noran-Juhani, Anna and Juhan-Petteri Saijets. She married Heikki Mattus and they lived on the shore of Lake Inari and Niliniemi.

Aili sewed Inari Sámi costumes on commission and made other articles belonging to the costume. When her husband died, Aili devoted herself completely to her handicraft as a traveling artisan and marketed her work herself. Her Inari Sámi dolls were especially famous and in demand as gifts. She carved the wooden heads of the dolls herself, made the bodies of cloth and sewed real Inari Sámi clothes for them.

Rambling-Aili became her nickname because of her traveling lifestyle. Aili wandered and sewed clothes in the villages she lodged in and sewed on demand. Aili died in 1965, after spending the last years of her life in a home for the aged.

Ella Sarre