Lessons In Making A Bridal Veil, Part 1

Lesson number 1: Don't volunteer to make a bridal veil.

Lesson number 2: Buy extra tulle.

Lesson number 3: Be prepared.  Including the drinks you'll need after spending the whole day attempting to (gently!) wrestle with the what is possibly the most frustrating thing ever invented by man.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit on that last one.  But only a little bit.

It's amazing the things you will agree to do for the people you love.  Sometimes without fully thinking it through.  So when my best friend asked me to go wedding dress shopping with her, I should have known better than to let the words, "I'll make your veil." slip out of my mouth.  Had she wanted a simple one this post might have a different tune.  But, oh no.  The one she liked in the store was a beautiful beaded and embroidered number that set off her dress perfectly.  And of course it came with a ridiculous price tag.  Which I now see as perfectly reasonable.

I know how to sew.  I know how to embroider, both by hand and by machine.  I know how to bead.  So putting all of that together, should be easy, right?  Yeah, not so much.  I spent an entire day just trying to figure out how to mark the tulle so I could sew the scallops.  A whole day to hem just one yard of fabric!

First, the inspiration:

Pretty, but not exactly right for her dress.  Something about the flowers and vines just didn't mesh well upon closer inspection.  So it was off to the fabric store.

Tulle and sparkly thread acquired!  But the real issue came when I realized that there is literally NO WAY to mark the lines on the tulle without it being permanent.  So this is what I came up with:

I traced my scallop template onto some non-woven interfacing, and pinned it to the tulle along the edge.  Since I'd already cut my tulle into a softly curved shape and my template was straight, I had to kind of squish it up around the curves.  Then I sewed very, very carefully right next to the edge of the template.  If I had enough tulle to do it again (see post number 2 above) I think I'd sew with my template on the bottom, so that I could see the tulle a lot better and make sure it wasn't getting stretched or folded.  But even though the end result isn't perfect, it's useable.  Sometimes good is good enough.

Stay tuned for Part 2, in which I'll be doing all the handwork!  Hopefully this will involve less cursing.

-Sparrow