Weddingbee Blog

At this point in our planning, I am 98% sure that I will be a two veil bride. I don’t want anything to cover my face during the reception, so I have been thinking about wearing something small, ivory, and ruffled instead. I’ve locked myself in my sewing room (OK, dining room!) and have been testing out some veil alternatives. Here is a tutorial on how to make this lovely little hairpiece:

How to make a ruffled silk & tulle headpiece:

Supplies:

• 1/4- 1/2 yard of white or ivory silk or satin (I used silk dupioni)
• 1/4- 1/2 yard of white or ivory tulle
• White or ivory thread
• Sewing pins
• Sharp scissors
• Sewing machine
• Plastic comb or barrette
• Hot glue gun (wash your hands after using the hot glue gun—most cords for glue guns contain lead)
• Glue sticks

Cut two strips of silk about 8″ wide and 3″ long. I like the frayed edge look, so I ripped my pieces.

Cut four strips of tulle, about the same size as the silk strips. Place two of the tulle strips on top of each other. Now we are going to gather the tulle.

Step 1:

Thread your sewing machine with white or ivory thread. Set your sewing machine to the largest straight stitch setting. This is very important!

Before sewing, pull the bobbin (bottom) thread out a few inches longer than the needle (top) thread. When we gather the tulle, we will only use the bobbin thread, and this will help you keep the two apart at a glance.

Step 2:

Place the edge of the tulle underneath the presser foot. I line the edge right up to the inner edge of the presser foot and use that for a guide for sewing. IMPORTANT: When you begin to sew, do not backstitch at all. You will need the line of stitching to be open and free to gather.

Begin sewing. The tulle with begin to gather itself as you go, this is normal. When you get to the end, do NOT backstitch. Just bring the presser foot up. IMPORTANT: Since the tulle has been gathering while you were sewing, you need to pull a lot of thread before cutting it off, at least 4 inches. And as before, make the bobbin thread longer, maybe 7 inches. If you do not pull out enough thread, you will run out of thread when you pull the tulle flat. When you are finished with stitch, the tulle will look like this:

Don’t worry, it will look beautiful soon!

Step 3:
Gently un-gather the tulle, so it is flat again. It’s OK if it is a bit scrunchy, but try to get it as flat as you can. Now we are going to put in the second gather stitch. Place the tulle edge under the presser foot again, but this time line the inner edge of the presser foot with the first stitch that we made and use that as a guide:

Remember, no backstitching, and give yourself tons and tons of thread at the end before you cut! Make sure the bobbin thread is longer than the top thread.

Step 4:

Now we will gently gather the tulle. Hold both bobbin threads (you can only gather with the bobbin threads) with one hand, and scrunch the fabric up like this:

Now adjust until you get a cute little ruffle. Repeat steps 1-4 for the other piece of tulle and the two silk strips. You should have four little ruffles when you are done:

Switch your stitch length to regular and sew over the top of your gathering stitches, to secure the ruffle.
Now, place each silk ruffle on top of the tulle ruffle and sew together along the edge.

I have trimmed some of the lengths of the silk and tulle to produce a layered effect.
Now sew the two ruffles together, so that you can see the layering well:

Now we are going to make a pleated silk base. Cut a strip of silk fabric 11 inches long and 1 inch tall. Start to pleat the fabric by bringing up bottom fabric toward the top and ironing in place:

Pleat the fabric all the way down. Make sure that you have at least a half an inch of fabric on either side of the top and bottom; we will fold these edges under to finish the edge. Pin the pleats in place, then sew along the bottom edge:

Now hot glue the pleated section of silk to the front base of the hair comb:

Now take the ruffled silk and tulle, and place it on the backside of the comb, front fabric facing you. Hot glue to the back of the comb:

It’s like a fluffy silk sandwich!

Here it is again, in my hair:

I love the frayed edges and soft ruffles.

If you don’t like pleats, you can do all ruffles. You can also throw some feathers in between the layers, or do some beading to make it more glitzy. If you would rather use a barrette, sew all layers together and only hot glue to the top of the barrette.

Happy Sewing!