Married in October of 2007 Stacie was the quintessential Flirty Bride and used her own wedding as an opportunity to bring to life her vision of what a flirty bride is, and how much fun she should have, both planning her own wedding and at the wedding itself.
A one woman design studio, or as she calls herself, creative consultant, Stacie Tamaki is one busy girl. You can always see the latest she's been up to on her Fun and Flirty Blog.
Whether she's making custom bridal veils, tiaras, jewelry and cake toppers, or creating miniature origami cranes, her imagination knows few boundaries.
Her career in the bridal industry began 11 years ago. Her bridal, origami and custom dog costumes have been featured online and in newspapers, magazines, 4X on San Jose's, KNTV News Channel 11, HGTV , and the TODAY Show.
Here's the thing about hand beaded veils: It takes precision, patience, some intuitive layout skills and time but this is a project that many people can master if they don't mind putting in some practice BEFORE attempting to hand bead their bridal veil. I say before because the nylon tulle used to make veils is delicate, fragile and not forgiving in nature (it will stretch and tear) so you need to know exactly how to do this before you attempt to on your finished veil.
With that said, what you will need are crystal beads. (You can also use pearls or glass beads.) These are my favorite Swarovksi Austrian Crystals to use for hand beading veils. The shape is called a bicone and the Swarovski style number is #5301. It's faceted like a diamond which helps to create nice, bright, sparkles when light reflects off of them.
Pictured here in three sizes 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm. I almost always used the 4mm exclusively on short veils, meaning from the fingertip up. Floor length veils I would sometimes use 5mm beads at the bottom of the veil where it drags on the ground and blend them into the 4mm to bead up to the top where the veil attaches to the comb.
Most popular colors for bridal veils are the clear crystals or the AB (which stands for aurora borealis) which have a rainbow shimmer to them that will cast off colored sparkles when the light hits them.
Tip:
Authentic freshwater pearls are more tedious because their holes are drilled very, very small so it's hard to find a needle that will fit through them.
You can also use round crystals or beads. The round Swarovski crystals (style number #5000) are more expensive than the bicone shape and since I preferred the other bicone shape, I seldom used the round for hand beading onto veils.
To sew the crystals to the tulle I used this nylon transparent thread size .005 by Coats. The thread is similar to fishing line and is an "invisible" monofilament.
Here is a close up of the thread.
For sewing I would use small needles. "Sharps" or "Quilting Betweens" were usually the perfect size. Their short length makes them just the right size and shape for hand beading.
And this is the nylon tulle close up. I will repeat again, do NOT practice doing this on your actual veil. Most fabric stores sell nylon tulle. It usually runs around $3 per yard. Buy a yard and use it to practice your technique until you can do this perfectly. Only then should you move on to your actual bridal veil.
The strands create a small diamond pattern. Your goal will be to sew each crystal to a single strand of tulle.
To begin, thread the needle.
Now double knot the thread directly to the head of the needle making sure to tie one knot and the second knot directly over the first one, not to the needle itself.
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Comments (18)
Elisha• 2010-08-01 17:52:45
This is really an awesome tutorial! I have a couple of questions; 1)What is the gauge on the Sharps needle that you use for this project? 2)Approximately how many crystals should you order for each of the beading categories you mentioned (full length, waist length and floor)?
The number of beads needed depends on how close or far apart you sew the crystals. I think in most instances when I did a top to bottom, 118" long cathedral veil I used between 200 and 300 crystals. Using round numbers, spacing the beads 6" apart the veil would break down to approximately 20 rows with 18 beads across in each row. Keep in mind that the closer you get to the top of the veil, fewer crystals are needed as the tulle condenses upon itself and the crystals can be seen through the folded layers.
As for the sharps, to be honest I never paid too much attention to the needle size. The holes in the Swarovski Crystal beads are large enough to accommodate any needle size. The smaller sized needles are best when working with freshwater pearls as their holes are very small and a tight fit with any needle. I often had to resort to the the finest beading needles to get through freshwater pearl beads.
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Elisha• 2010-08-04 12:33:41
Thanks so much for the information!
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Elisha• 2010-08-04 12:47:38
Stacie,
I have selected the dress in the link below to get married in, with a cathedral length veil. The wedding will be in an indoor beach chapel with some pictures done outside and on the beach as well. I think a full length beading pattern would be too much, and I was leaning more towards floor only beading pattern. What do you think? Would you even do beads at all with this dress?
Also, I was thinking about an alternative to beading all over and doing a beaded monogram in a script font on the bottom center of the veil. Have you ever done that before, and could I use the technique you described here to bead the monogram?
I would either bead from the top of where the back of the gown begins (so no beads are against your bare skin) or not bead at all. To lighten the effect of the beading you could always space them further apart, say 8" or 10".
A monogram would probably not work because the beads would be too heavy once they are all condensed into a single area.
Normally when a gown is heavily beaded I recommend not beading the veil. But your gown is mostly plain on the back (of the train) so you could either bead the veil or bead the train...
Beading on fabric is similar to beading on tulle. I would recommend purchasing some yardage of similar fabric to the fabric of your gown to practice on before attempting to bead directly onto your gown. In the past I have hand beaded silk satin and organza as well as polyester gowns and found they all work well when using the beading method described for the veils.
The only difference is that you need to take the needle through just enough fabric to hold the bead in place without catching more fabric than the width of the bead. If I had to guess I'd say you'd want to catch the needle through half to a third as much fabric as the bead is wide, tucking the knot inside of the bead as described in this tutorial.
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Elisha• 2010-08-04 14:15:49
That really helps alot! I appreciate your opinion! I will probably end up beading the veil in the area of the train since it is plain. I would mess the dress up if I beaded actually on the dress...ha ha ha! I think I'll space them further apart as you suggested and concentrate the beading more towards the bottom. I have found Swarovski bicone crystals #5328 that are supposed to be more brilliant (Xilion cut) that I will use to bead the veil.
The dress also has about 10-12 3/4 round Swarovski crystal buttons running down the zipper line (don't know if you could see that in the picture), so it's not like I wouldn't have anything on the back of the dress, but I do want a little light sparkle in the back.
One last thing...when beading waist down or floor only, are all the beads just running straight across or are they tapered on the edges and curved in the middle? (sorry for the poor description, but it just looks like that in the beading options diagram on page 2).
The beads are not curved in the middle, they are tapered and are highest at the center area of the bead, peaking two flat panels from each side to make the center higher than the sides near the holes.
One other thing you can do is to use fewer beads is to use a larger sized crystal on the part of the veil that drags on the floor, so perhaps 4mm for the upper part of the veil, transitioning to the 5mm for the beads that will be on the floor length part of the veil.
Be sure to purchase some tulle at the fabric store and practice on it before you begin your veil. I think you'll be surprised how easy this method is once you get the hang of it :)
Basically you would use the 4mm beads from the area you start beading the gown and end using that size where the veil begins to touch the floor. Wherever that point is, the part where the veil goes from being suspended against the skirt of your gown to dragging on the ground, perhaps about 12" up from that point you would begin to transition to the larger 5mm beads so that the 5mm beads are on the part of the veil that drags on the ground.
I can mock up a diagram for you tomorrow if that isn't clear :)
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Elisha• 2010-08-04 18:10:13
Ok, thank you so much!
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Elisha• 2010-08-05 18:52:17
Stacie,
I still need a diagram. I understand about transitioning the 5mm beads from the floor to 4mm beads as I move up, but I don't understand the tapering pattern with the panels that you referred to. I diagram with some a shaded pattern would probably be helpful. Thanks!
Elisha• 2010-08-05 20:16:43
I just saw the diagram transitioning the 4mm and 5mm beads. Even though it wasn't what I was originally asking about, it's still a really helpful diagram!
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janie wilson• 2010-08-18 00:22:42
how long does it take to sew beads on a cathedral lenght veil? I plan to sew a line of beads all around the veil.
How long it takes to bead a veil depends on how quickly or slowly each individual is able to bead :)
For myself it would typically take around 30-40 hours to hand bead a cathedral length veil top to bottom.
Beading all the way around the edge may make the edge quite heavy. If it were me I would test the weight of the beads by stringing them on a single strand of thread and then tack it down along the edge of a sample piece of tulle to see how it bears the weight of the beads. If it's too heavy you'll know by the way you don't like how the veil drapes under the weight.
What might work better is to add a finished (rolled) edge to the veil and sew the beads to the edging. I can photograph an edge tomorrow and will post a link here for you to view.
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Marie• 2010-08-18 17:18:12
Help....I'm confused.....I really need to get this down to finish a veil that I am working on.
2nd picture shows the crystal on only one thread - is that the long thread that is shown on the picture? I am only supposed to tie a knot using the long thread and leave the short thread alone?
4th picture - directions say "Take the short end of the thread (without the needle) and pull it back through the hole in the bead first." Do I take off the needle? Isn't the needle going to be in the way when I pull it back thru the hole?
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Stacie Tamaki (The Flirty Guide)• 2010-08-18 18:02:13
Question: "2nd picture shows the crystal on only one thread - is that the long thread that is shown on the picture? I am only supposed to tie a knot using the long thread and leave the short thread alone?"
Answer: The thread you see to the left in second image is the shorter end of the same long piece of thread. The knot is tied directly to the eye of the needle so yes, the short end you leave alone but just for now.
Question: "4th picture - directions say "Take the short end of the thread (without the needle) and pull it back through the hole in the bead first." Do I take off the needle? Isn't the needle going to be in the way when I pull it back thru the hole?"
Answer: No you do not remove the needle from the thread. Leave the thread tied to the needle the entire time. It will not be in the way because the hole in the bead is much larger than the diameter of the needle and the knots you've tied in the thread enabling you to "tuck" the knotted thread into the hole of the bead.
So pull the short end of the thread back through the hole first, then the longer end of the thread with the needle attached making sure to pull both ends only until the knot is hidden inside of the bead.
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Julie• 2010-08-30 11:56:52
What a great tutorial! I was curious though, how you would suggest using crystals to EDGE a veil. I was thinking of using seed beads and crystal bicones and to space them out (not a solid line of beads, if that makes any sense!) But wasn't sure if you have to use a single long line of thred, or how to tie it off in sections... Any ideas would be fabulous!
In general you want to use short strands of thread for beading so that if a strand were to break the bead loss would be minimal. That's why even when sewing the individual crystals onto a heavier, more solid fabric I still hand tied off each individual bead.
It would really depend on the beads being used but personally I'd probably try to use a new strand of thread a maximum of every one to two inches. You could easily do a 6 inch section with a single thread but if it catches on something or breaks while you're wearing it you could potentially lose 6 inches of beads.
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