Millinery Course for Beginners

Learn to make a hat with our millinery short courses in Sydney!

Learn to make your own hat! In this short course, you will learn many traditional aspects of millinery. In this course, you'll take make and take home a straw or felt headpiece that you made yourself.

If you want to learn about Millinery in Sydney, then this course is for you.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this Millinery course, you should:

• have completed a hat using either a straw or a felt capeline.
• have gained knowledge of and completed several trim and finishing techniques using millinery materials – feathers, crinoline, and grosgrain.
• be able to demonstrate the use of a variety of millinery techniques to make and complete a hat such as blocking, finishing, binding techniques.
• be able to analyse a hat in terms of design line, colour, texture, repetition, emphasis, and balance.
• be able to determine styles to suit their face shape.

Course content

• Introduction to millinery and its materials, tools, and equipment
• What style suits me?
• Design Elements and principles for hats and headwear
• Choosing the right hat blocks for your hat project
• Learn some traditional trim techniques for millinery and hatmaking
• Making a hat or headpiece from Felt or Straw using traditional techniques
• Feather shaping for trims
• Working with silk flower making tools
• Grosgrain binds and trims
• Crinoline Trims
• Keep it on your head – tips, tricks, and techniques to secure your hat
• How to store, and care for your hat
• Tour Embellish Atelier and Hatters Millinery Supplies to experience a working studio

Additional information

The tutor provides the foundation materials as part of the course – (paradisal straw or felt capeline, wire, some basic fabrics, tools, equipment, and sundry glues, and stiffeners) for your Hat or headpiece. Suitable Hat Blocks are made available for use to create the Hat or headpiece.

Please wear closed in shoes.

Please bring to class

The tutor supplies equipment and materials for the first class and will outline and display the correct equipment, and tools required for millinery. A basic sewing kit can be purchased on the first evening and includes:

• Tape measure
• Sewing Gauge
• Packet of mixed size straw needles (Birch preferred)
• Floral Pins
• Beeswax Thread conditioner

Additional materials required throughout the class:

• Mapping/drawing pins
• Quality dressmaking steel pins
• Apron
• Thread to match project – Gutermann preferred
• Hat Box
• General purpose scissors
• Long-nosed pliers
• Thimble

Available to purchase from Spotlight, Lincraft or Hatters Millinery Supplies.