Buying Millinery supplies on line
Image by Vermin Inc via Flickr
Living in Canberra there are not many options for buying millinery supplies, sure you can buy fabric from spotlight or lincraft and some proper millinery lining from addicted to fabric, but sinamay and felt or straw capelines or hoods, even proper grosgrain ribbon is hard to find. Unless I have a trip planned for Melbourne or Sydney I normally have to resort to buying what I need on line or by calling up Preston’s in Melbourne to order.
I like to buy from a website that has an easy to use store and where it is obvious that the payment methods are secure or that they use paypal or similar secure payment method.
The site I use most is De Lew Designs as their site is easy to use, they have a range of good quality millinery supplies, and the service has always been excellent. The store has a range of sinamays, feathers, felt and straw hoods as well as numerous other materials. I sometimes order the cheaper felt hoods to experiment new designs on.
If I order from Preston’s in Melbourne I often look at their page on the internet with the colours of their product so I at least have some idea of the colour of product that I will receive. If buying two colours of sinamay that are to be put together I will ask if they go together.
The biggest problem when ordering products from afar is colour, the colour on the web is never exact and I have brought feathers that I thought were a rose pink colour only to have them arrive hot pink and sinamay that looked a natural purple to find it was much brighter. For this reason I attempt to buy products in person when possible.
In the future I want am looking at buying products from Torb and Reiner in Melbourne to try some of the products unique to their store. Such as Jinsin and raffia and straw cloth.
If you can recommend any millinery suppliers or have had experience purchasing millinery supplies on line please leave a comment.
Good on you for writing an article and sharing your experiance, I can highly recommend http://www.feather.com.au huge range online, easy transactions and secure payment, Narelle is wonderful!
Judith M. Millinery Supplies in the U.S. is a wonderful supply house.
http://www.judithm.com
I live in Canberra too!
Have looked everywhere for good quality raffia for hat making-
any suggestions.
Do you know of any workshops being held in Rockhampton, QLD?
Cheers,
Kylie
sometimes Torb and Reiner hold courses in Rockhampton… otherwise not sure…
Hi, I noticed that Christine Yarker is doing some millinery workshops in Queensland… not in Rockhampton but maybe close enough??? http://www.christineyarker.com/page16.htm
I’ve noticed that raffia is starting to be sold at Eckersley’s my local art store. You could Google it to see if you can find other sources near you.
henty field days has a millinery prize this yr in their comp of $500,sounds like fun.
Just thought I’d share with everyone that there is a new online store selling Millinery Materials – check out http://www.TheFeatherShop.com.au. They are based in Melbourne, Australia, and have an excellent range or products and fantastic service!
Could any one recommend a good millinery course to do in Sydney? I can only find TAFE offering one and all spots are booked. I have started learning in London the old fashioned way (hand stitching everything) and would love to continue that way but I do not know where to go now. Suggestions would be appreciated….
Hi, I’ve been doing a course in Sydney with Catherine Kelly of Embellish Atelier. She teaches traditional methods. I would highly recommend her.