Making The Bridal Veil

Here is one of the two hair clips I made and featured in a past blog post

I have made a lot of detailed pieces, but this was the first full veil I've made.  So to prepare I did a lot of research on determining and adjusting lengths, edging, and adding lace and jeweled details.  One really useful site is here:Crafty Wedding .  This blog site was helpful with cutting instructions and for doing a rolled pencil edge.

So, after meeting with Katie Beth to find out the length she wanted for the blusher, and the back, I also found out what sort of details she wanted to have on her veil.  She had purchased a shimmering wedding tulle that was 108" wide, and had about a yard and a half of lace that matched that on her dress.  She also had a few flowers she wanted incorporated in the design if possible.  SOOOOO, with this information and my measurements, I laid out the tulle on my kitchen table and cut the edges as shown in the Crafty Wedding site.

After cutting the entire piece to the full length I needed, I then folded it in half, and then than in half again and cut the edge using a large salad bowl as the guide for my rounded edge.

Once the edges were cut, I trimmed off any ragged edges

I then folded and pinned the length I needed for the blusher

Katie Beth had purchased a wide plastic comb, but I bought a sturdier metal one to use instead.  These last longer and the beauty of them is that whichever direction the comb needs to go to hold the veil onto your head the metal can bend to accommodate this, whereas the plastic comb can only go in the one direction that it's molded. This was fortunate, because they wound up needing to bend the comb when they put her hair up for her wedding.
I took a piece of tulle and wrapped the top of the metal comb.  This serves two purposes, it covers the metal so it doesn't show through and it gives you something to sew on as you secure the tulle to the comb.

The metal comb with tulle wrapped through tines and stitched at the end to secure,

Gathering and pinning the tulle to just a bit wider than the comb,  and all ready for stitching to the comb.

Another view of the wrapped comb, ready for stitching and then attached to veil.

Once I had the comb secure, I took the heavier embroidery thread and following the suggestions from the Crafty Wedding began doing the pencil edge to the veils edges.  I had practiced on a few strips of the tulle I'd cut off before beginning on the main veil.  It took a bit of time, but I was pleased with the results and the fringy appearance it gave, because of the volume of fabric.

Here is the veil with just the pencil edging done

Once, I had this complete, I laid out the lace and flowers to find a look that would be attractive.  I had originally thought I would cut the lace into sections and use the flowers in between these sections, so I could cover more of the back of the veil.  The problem is this lace design really did not lend itself to being cut apart.  So, I centered it and used the flowers to go around the curves of the corners.
I pinned the lace and flowers in place and checked their positions to be sure they were properly balanced, before stitching them in place.  Once these were on I began the process of adding the decorative details.  I used two sizes of round pearls, clear glass beads and oblong pearl beads following the laces design.

The veil with the lace and flowers pinned in place.

Lace with some of the pearls

The details of flowers, beads and gems

Final lace, flowers with details added

Once this was done, I carefully used Aleene's jewelry and fabric glue to adhere 3mm Savwarski gems onto the lace to add a touch of extra bling that could catch the light.  With all this done the veil was ready to present to Katie Beth.

Veil finished with trim and waiting for Katie Beth to pick up

This was her trying it on for the first time:

Katie Beth trying the veil on in Hannah's room so she can see herself in the mirror

Back detail and length

And here it is with her wedding dress.  Think it worked out well and she was quite pleased with the results.

The pictures a bit blurry, but you can see the blusher length here.

The back view

Here is the veil with dress (photo courtesy Michele Guzman Photography)

So there we are.  I so enjoyed making this that it's inspired me to begin doing a lot of other hand work pieces that I'll feature in other blog posts.