Tulle Fabric Directory

A Net From the Lace Machines

Tulle is a fine, light net with a hexagonal mesh, made by twisting warp yarns around weft yarns so the intersections lock and cannot slip. It descends from bobbinet, the machine-made net first produced on adapted lace machinery in Nottingham in the early nineteenth century, and it takes its name from Tulle, the French city associated with net and lace making. True bobbinet-structure tulle is still the finest and softest; much modern tulle is a Raschel-knitted net that imitates the hexagon at lower cost, and the two are sold side by side, which is why a buyer should ask how a quoted tulle is made.

This directory lists two tulle suppliers - Edley Associates of the USA and Shamala Textiles - each with its profile below. The site glossary's tulle entry is linked on this page.

Silk, Nylon and the Hand of the Net

Silk tulle is the couture material: feather-light, soft, and draping in the floating layers of bridal veils and ballet costumes, at a price that reserves it for special work. Nylon tulle is the trade standard - crisp or soft depending on finish, strong, inexpensive and available in every color; polyester net serves dress and craft markets; and the stiffened 'bridal illusion' quality, a very fine nylon net, is what most veils are actually cut from. The hand of tulle is a specification in itself: soft tulle drapes and is gathered into skirts and overlays, stiff tulle (sometimes called crinoline net's lighter cousin) holds shapes in petticoats, tutu skirts and millinery.

Hexagon size and yarn fineness set the grades, from coarse veiling and tutu net down to illusion so fine it disappears against skin. Glitter, flocked, dotted and sequinned tulles are finished versions of the same nets for the occasion-wear trade.

Where Tulle Is Used

Bridal is tulle's kingdom: veils, gown skirts and overlays, bridesmaid dresses and flower-girl frocks. Ballet owns the second kingdom - the classical tutu is layers of stiff tulle, and rehearsal skirts use the soft qualities. Around those two sit evening overlays that let a plain satin read as couture, gift wrapping and favor bags, party and wedding decoration, millinery veiling, and the craft and floral trades, which consume colored tulle by the bolt.

Working with tulle is mostly about managing volume and edges: it does not fray, so hems are simply cut, but it stretches on the bias of the hexagon and must be handled flat and unhurried; layers are gathered onto waistbands and bodices with long stitches, and pressing is done, if at all, with a cool iron and a press cloth, because nylon net glazes and shrinks under heat. Its static and its habit of clinging to itself in the cutting room are the two complaints every veil maker learns to plan around.

Volume is tulle's whole purpose in dressmaking: a single layer is nearly invisible, ten layers are a cloud, and fifty are a tutu, so designers order by the meter and think in layers rather than in pattern pieces. That layering also builds color - pale nets stacked shift the shade of the fabric beneath them - which is why a gown's overlay is always sampled over its actual satin, never judged alone on the roll.

Sourcing Notes

Specify tulle by fiber, construction (bobbinet-type or Raschel net), mesh fineness, stiffness and finished width - bridal widths run wide, craft bolts narrow - and order a handled sample, because tulle cannot be judged from a photograph: two nets that look identical differ completely in drape. For veil programs, confirm the shade against skin and against the gown fabric in daylight; 'ivory' in net is not one color across suppliers, and the fine illusion qualities shift the apparent shade of everything under them.

Fabric Mills and Factories in This Directory

The mills below are listed in this directory. Each name opens the company's profile in the Fabric Mills by Name directory.