Mad guy trying to make a bee veil

How I'd do it:

Cut a rectangle of veiling: make the length the circumference of the hat plus 1", and the width the finished width you want plus 2".

Using a half inch seam allowance, sew up the seam to make a tube...

Sew a 1" hem in the bottom of the veil and thread the elastic through.

Turn about half an inch in on the top, and pin then sew it to the outside edge of the hat brim, right close to the edge, on the under side.

I'd do it exactly as Kate describes, but instead of turning up a hem and threading the elastic through, I'd sew on a one or two inch strip of cotton fabric to the bottom edge and turn that up to thread the elastic through. Considering where it's going to be situated, the bottom edge will suffer a good bit of friction and may wear out. You could use a roll of bias tape or hem binding tape for this purpose (both easily obtained at any sewing counter).

HTH,

To make a really-drastic change in circumference, you might want a drawstring instead of elastic.

Make sure the veiling does not come into contact with your head at any point, no matter what you do while wearing the veil. My veil was a tube of wire screening with netting sewn to top and bottom. (It was worn over a hat.) I'm pretty sure it didn't draw up around the neck, but I can't remember what it did instead.

Joy Beeson

Mine had a very large circumference, and was quite long, with a LONG drawstring at the bottom, so the netting could come down to the shoulders, with the drawstring looping under the arms and back up through a tab at the front. The result was netting that dropped down from the hat brim to the shoulders and somewhat down in the front and back, keeping the netting well away from the neck and head.