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Here is a list of Millinery suppliers so far on my links page….

Australia

Melbourne

Cyril J Preston

Supplier to the millinery and associate trades. Check out their website for the supplies of hats and feathers currently available. They dye or get dyed some of their own feathers – I have picked up some great feathers there.
38 Walsh St,
West Melbourne,
VIC 3003.
Ph: 03 9329 8944.
visit CJ Preston

Torb and Reiner Millinery

Hat making with a passion. Provides a wide range of millinery materials, supplies and tools. Also supplies products that are not available elsewhere such as jinsin and straw cloth. They also run regular courses from their Murrumbeena studio and around Australia.
Ph: 03 9504 4476.
visit Torb and Reiner

Melbourne Hat Blocks

This Melbourne based hat block maker takes orders on the Internet. I have seen a few of the hat blocks purchased by some of my Millinery friends and they appear to be of good quality.

Unit 3, 2 Celia St
Bentleigh East
VIC, 3165
Australia
(03) 9579 343
visit: Visit Your Hat Shop

NSW

Wagga Wagga

De Lew Designs

Milliner and Millinery supplies. From sinamay and capalines/hoods, to hat veiling, flowers and millinery tools. Has a great online ordering system and very efficient mailing.
15 Crisp Dr,
Wagga Wagga,
NSW 2650.
Ph: 02 6971 1122. visit De Lew Designs

Queensland

Feather.com.au – Supplier of all kind of feathers. The largest selection of hand-dyed, commercially dyed and natural feathers in Australia. A good online shopping system.

Lot 14, Chatham Terrace,
Smithfield Heights,
Cairns, QLD 4878.
Ph: 07 4038 2882. visit Feather.com.au

Custom Made hatblocks and moulds
Phil Mergard – supplier of custom made blocks and production moulds.
0419709421

Sydney

SA Brown or the Hat Studio

Millinery supplies: blocking fabric, capeline, cocktail shapes, crinoline, feathers, flowers, hat blocks, hoods, ribbons, sinamay braid and fabric, veiling. Also conduct millinery workshops.
168 Victoria Ave,
Chatswood,
NSW 2067.
Ph: 02 9413 4311. visit the Hat Studio

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.