livingrubber.com and staminainc.com are good places to start. I've bought from both. They will usually send you skirt samples too if you want to see a color before you buy it.

Start by buying a skirt factory tool, skirt collars, skirt rattle collars, rattles and living rubber. If you don't want to invest in a lead pot for pouring your own, you can order plain or painted bass jigheads from Stamina (This is what I usually do but I'm sure a lead pot & accessories will save more $$$ in the long run). I've caught more fish than I can count using Stamina jigheads mathced up with my own skirt creations. I catch 95% of my jig fish on jigs I've created. I also agree that it's lots of fun to create baits.

I have used a vice and tied jigs as well. I'll tie up hair jigs, rubber jigs and sometimes use both hair & rubber together. It's also fun to take old spinnerbaits/buzzbaits, remove the old skirt and tie a new one. My biggest buzzbait fish last year came on a hand tied lure.

My best success last year came on a brown, black, copper scale jig. It caught a bunch for me in 2005. It's also pretty cool when you wear your partner out with a bait you made.