First Communion is coming up quickly, only two weeks away, and I just finished the dress over the weekend.  Now it is time to make the veil, a fun and quick project that could also be adapted to make a wedding veil for a little girl’s dress-up box.

• 1 yard tulle 45″ wide-  the finer the tulle the nicer it will drape
  
• 1/4″ satin ribbon (5 yards)
• thread
• fabric padded headband
• assorted millinery flowers -optional

Step 1: Fold in half width-wise to a size 45″  x 18″ and then fold in half again to have a square 22.5 x 18.”  Lay this on a cutting mat and with a rotary cutter cut a gently sloping quarter circle to give the veil shape.

First fold to 45 x 18

2nd fold to 22.5 x18

cutting of veil shape

Step 2: Machine sew 1/4″ satin ribbon to edge of tulle.  Start sewing at the widest point (at edge of 45″ width point.)  It will be gathered at the headband and hidden.

It might be a little difficult to start in the machine, so begin with an inch of ribbon under the presser foot.  Trim excess ribbon prior to making the full circle to overlap the ribbon.  Continue feeding the ribbon over the edge of the tulle and stitch all the way around the tulle.

Step 3: Fold veil to the position where you would like the tiers to hit, about a 6″ difference gives a nice look or keep them even.  Baste along the folded edge.  This will be where the veil is gathered.  I did this by hand but you could quickly machine baste.

Step 4: Evenly gather veil and hand stitch to the headband.  This is most time consuming step (still only about 15-20 minutes).  I found the easiest way to evenly gather was to tack the veil to the headband at the end points and center point and then distribute the gathers between them hand stitching in place. Be sure to stitch evenly in place to the back edge of the head band to conceal stitch and leave a nice edge.

Step 5: Optional additional millinery flowers may be hand sewn to the headband to cover any stitching and add some pop to the veil and customize it to match any details of the dress.

To make a wedding veil the same techniques apply, just with loads more tulle, for example use 60″ wide tulle and 1.5- 6 yards, depending on length and number of layers.

TaDaa!

Finished veil modeled by a very silly girl!