Wedding DIY: the veil

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for all the incredibly sweet messages on Friday's post! 

To use the word "relieved" is a vast, vast understatement. It feels like I have my life back. Absolutely nothing has changed in terms of my day to day activities.. but I feel like I'm no longer being held captive by this big invisible THING. I didn't realize just how tense I was until the last few days. oofta. 

Moving on.. I'd like to return to our regularly scheduled programming around these parts: bride brain. 

I do this thing, where I OD on wedding crafts, and then don't pick up a glue gun or look at Pinterest for a week or two. 

Today's topic: veils. 

Originally I had written off wearing one because I dubbed myself looking "cartoonish"... I toyed around at David's Bridal with M's sisters one day and ya know... actually tried one on, and surprise surprise- I wasn't totally repulsed! It was an elbow length veil, and the comb was attached in such a way that it didn't poof up, it just laid flat (if that makes sense). 

That was when I decided, if I could DIY a veil I'd consider wearing one. No offense to any of you reading who paid $100+ for a veil, but no. way. in. hell. could I justify that for tulle. Wanna know how much tulle costs? I bought 2 yards for $1.50. Yeah. Can we say, markup? 

That's when I stumbled upon this tutorial from A Practical Wedding. 

Looked simple enough. BUT, I was concerned that a DIY veil that was just tulle may look cheap, since my edges would be rough, and my sewing on the comb may not be perfect. SO I had an idea. I asked my mom if she had a veil and went to look at it. It was actually just plain tulle on a caged hat thing. 

However, it was in the bag that her veil was in I looked at her dress in real life for the first time (I've had a photo on my dresser for years). 

I asked my mom if I could use parts of her dress to make a veil. Mom said "go for it!" dad gave me some grief. I think he thought I was just going to go all Edward Scissorhands on it. I guess I figured.. if my daughter wants to use some tulle or something from my dress, I'd rather have her carefully take some pieces and USE it vs. it sitting in a closet for forever if she doesn't want to actually WEAR it, ya know? 

So, I took it home. 

Here she is! 

So, you see at the bottom there are two tiers of ruffle/lace? The upper tier had a white lace that was sewn in below a satin ribbon. In looking at it, I realized I could snip it off pretty cleanly, and honestly you'd never know it was supposed to be there if you looked at the dress. Hence, I wouldn't "ruin it" like my dad feared. 

So I snipped the lace off around the entire dress. I knew if I wanted to trim my veil with it and have it not look totally tacky, I had to snip it close to the "applique" portion. I looked at this tutorial and saw that she cut out a pattern she liked. 

I followed the first tutorial for the most part, and tweaked it based on what worked/how the tulle fell. I honestly couldn't describe it if I tried. I gathered it, sewed it, folded it over (so it had a clean edge) and sewed it again, and then sewed it to the clip. I then trimmed the lace into the pattern you see above. 

I had purchased clear thread to sew, when I realized hand stitching the entire thing would be brutal. I turned to my trusty glue gun. I used the world's teeniest dab of glue on the parts of the lace that were the thickest/not as porous. (Like, see the flower in the above photo? I glued on there)  

The comb portion was pretty plain and I knew I wanted to decorate it a bit. I had some rhinestones from pimp cups I made for a bachelorette party (I'm super classy). If you look in the above photos, you can see the "branch" portion of the lace that I cut out and overlapped for the design on the clip. I then added the bling. 

I then decided to add lace up the sides too, but thought the size I used for the base may be a bit too big. So I just trimmed a smaller pattern (you can see where it came from, it's just the very bottom of the bigger lace design-- I'm just realizing I'm not sure ANY of these descriptions have made any sense. haha. my bad.)

So, I added that to both sides. 

I made a veil that is sentimental and detailed for a whopping $3.50. 

Ta-da!

I had the rhinestones

I had the glue gun/glue

I bought the tulle for $1.50 (2 yards in case I messed up)

I bought the metal hair comb for $1.99

Matt even was impressed! He hasn't wanted to see any of the details but I told him I wasn't locking myself in my room to craft, so I did it next to him on the couch. 

I WILL say, I do have somewhat of an appreciation for how much veils cost. Holy eye-crossing detail oriented work. and I just skimped and used glue (although I will say, you can't tell it's just glue).. I can't imagine sewing it. Oof. I'm incredibly proud of how it turned out though, and hope it's something I can pass down to my daughter. If she doesn't want to wear my dress, that is. 

-Kelly