Mill House Millinery

Hello, I’m Susan Widlake, and I have always had a passion for hats.

I started my millinery journey in 2009, at a hat making taster course at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Since then I have taken many courses over the years. 

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I’m an IT auditor by training, and have been really fortunate to be able to travel the world with my job. Since discovering hat making, I’ve packed a sewing kit along with my business attire. I’ve made felt hats on Eurostar, silk flowers in Zagreb, and folded ribbon rosettes on a plane, sitting next to the voice of Spongebob Squarepants.

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At the end of 2018 I hung up my corporate hat, came back to the UK, and turned my passion into a business. I now make hats at my home studio, a windmill, just outside Saffron Walden on the Cambridgeshire/Essex border. Hence the name Mill House Millinery

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My hats are named after places and locations that have captured my imagination. I love to incorporate local silk, woven in Sudbury in Suffolk in my designs, and my millinery wire comes from Great Dunmow in Essex.  A case of global inspiration and local implementation!

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Some of Mill House Millinery products is stocked in our gallery in Finchingfield and a selection can also be bought online below.