Plan Your Veil Before You Buy Your Fabric

In fashion, nobody buys the fabric first. The design is decided, the measurements are taken, and only then does anyone go shopping, because the decisions tell you what to buy.

A lot of DIY brides do it the other way round. They fall for a fabric, buy it, and make their veil decisions afterwards. It's an easy mistake to make, and I say that as someone who has been sewing for thirty years.

Why the order matters

Your dress silhouette decides the style and length of your veil. The length decides how much fabric you need. So if you buy first, you're guessing at the amount, and a guess can go wrong in two ways: too much fabric you didn't need, or not enough for the veil you now want.

Running short is the worse of the two. A second order can come from a different dye lot, and the colour may not match exactly.

The order I'd work in

1. Start with your dress. Its silhouette, neckline and fabric set the direction for everything else.

2. Decide the look. Gathered or not, how much it covers, volume or soft drape, and how it attaches to your comb. Make the comb decision before you cut anything.

3. Decide your length. The bridal industry has names for different lengths, but if you're making your own, it doesn't matter what a length is called, or what length it's "normally" made. It's a custom veil, for you. Hold a piece of fabric at the length you're considering and stand in front of a mirror. It tells you more than any guide can.

4. Choose your fabric. Get swatches and look at them in daylight next to your dress fabric. Shop lighting lies.

5. Measure, and write it down. Record your veil measurements and your fabric dimensions. Check the fabric width too: a narrower fabric can mean a seam down the back of your veil.

6. Now buy. All at once, so it all comes from the same dye lot.

Write it all down

This is what a tech pack is for. In fashion it's the page that records every decision about a garment, so nothing relies on memory. I made one for veils.

My Veil Tech Packs are printable PDFs, one for each veil style. Each has a design page for your swatches, a supplies checklist, a sheet for your decisions, a flat drawing with dimensions, and a sheet for your measurements. They don't make the decisions for you. They're where you record them, so you walk into the fabric shop knowing what you're buying.

See the "veil planning guides" on Etsy.

If you'd like the thinking behind each of these decisions, I've written about them in 5 Decisions to Make Before You Buy Your Veil Fabric and 5 Decisions to Make Before You Start Sewing Your Veil.

If you haven't yet, start with the free Pre-Veil Checklist.

Good luck

Kerry

The Veil Workshop