A D-Shaped Veil--Practical Considerations

Several years ago, I read a post by Elina on her blog, Neulakko, about a D-shaped veil she had made from wool. She described it as light, but so water repellent it tended to stay dry in damp (though not rainy) weather, and it hung as nicely as a linen veil. That post can be read here.  Lately, I've been looking into short projects to help ease myself into more regular costuming activities, so I've bumped the D-shaped veil project up a bunch of places on my list.

After reading the post, I decided I wanted a similar wool veil for myself.  I like the idea of a veil a lot, though the rectangular veils I have made over the years always looked more like I was balancing a rectangular placemat on my head instead of wearing a graceful veil.  A D-shaped veil, with the straight edge worn in the front, seemed like the ideal cut to eliminate the problems I've had with veil-making.

Unfortunately, I have another problem that a D-shaped cut, standing alone, will not solve.  A veil of light weight fabric requires a narrow hem--specifically, a rolled hem--and I have never succeeded in making a rolled hem that was not blocky, thick, and dorky-looking.  The problem is compounded when the garment in question has a rounded edge and is made from easily fraying fabric, such as a light wool.  Elina used wool muslin for her veil, and noted that it frayed a lot.  

Eithni's library of tutorials includes a tutorial on a magic veil hemming stitch that supposedly alleviates these problems.  It's a kind of hand-wrought zig-zag stitch that starts with folding your edge and directing every other stitch through the folded edge.  I have tried her technique before, with only mixed success.

Elina's own suggestion for easily frayed fabric is to make a 6 mm fold in the edge, stitch down the fold with stab stitches, and then make a rolled hem or other kind of hem of the remaining cloth. While that technique should control fraying effectively, it sounds as though it might result in a thick, blocky hem, and blockiness is part of what I am trying to avoid. (On the other hand, it would result in a hem of more even width and thickness than simply folding over the edge and whipstitching it down can achieve.)

I suspect the real knack to using Eithni's technique lies in figuring out where to put the fold and how deep to make it.  Moreover, that problem is compounded when the garment design requires you to hem a curved edge.

But before I can test any of my theories, I will need some suitable fabric for the project.  My thought is to use wool gauze or wool challis.  I've found several sources for wool challis in the $20-$25 per 1/2 yard range (which is what I'd want to get).  It's higher with shipping, of course, so I may wait to buy it until after our summer expenses have been dealt with.

EDIT:  (7/10/2019)  In light of a comment below about fabric available from Dharma Trading, I went back to that site and found a light silk-wool (63% silk / 37% wool) blend.  Part of the point of this project was to see how a purely wool fabric worked for me as a veil, but Dharma sells that silk-wool blend for only $14.75 a yard--MUCH cheaper than either the wool challis or the wool gauze that I found.  Queen Arengunde's remains have shown that a silk-wool blend was available, at least to the super-wealthy, in the very early Middle Ages.  Denver Fabrics once had some 100% wool gauzes as cheap as that, but their website shows that all of those fabrics are sold out!  Though I want to try the project on a pure wool fabric, the lower price for the Dharma silk-wool is very attractive to me, so I may still go with it.  Stay tuned.

EDIT:  (7/16/2019)  I found a source of wool challis on EBay that's about $14 (with shipping) for about a half yard, which is all I need.  I'd have already ordered it, but I'm heading out for vacation on Saturday, so I'm economizing on other expenses until after we return.