DIY Pillow Shams

To match the quilt I made for my sister (almost finished!), I made matching pillow shams that I gave to her this weekend.

DIY Pillow Sham Tutorial

I put together my own pattern, but you could make these with any pattern or solid piece of fabric. It’s important to measure the pillow you’re going to use for the sham. I used a standard pillow and cut the following pieces of fabric (times two for two shams):

• Front – 31 1/4 in. length x 23 in. height
• Back – 35 in. length x 23 in. height
• Interfacing – same size as front

I wanted to use a heavy interfacing to hold up the sham nicely. The type I found was 20 inch - too short height-wise, so I added 3 1/4 extra inches to the bottom and sewed it on with a zig-zag stitch and a 1/4 inch overlay.

Once the interfacing is the correct size, lay the top of the sham right-side up on top of the interfacing.

To create the back piece with an opening to easily insert your pillow, you’ll need to cut the back piece. It really doesn’t matter the exact area of where to cut, but I measured over 16 inches and cut through the middle, top to bottom. Label your left and right sides and keep right sides up. I did this with the blue and yellow pins.
 

You’ll be hemming the left side of one rectangle and the right side of the other.  Fold over 1/2 inch and press. Hem each one.

Lay the left side of your backing right-side down (back of hem facing out). Pin in place.

Then position the right side of the backing right-side down. Pin in place. The two small rectangles will overlap, which is how you’ll insert the pillow when you’re done.

Sew all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Trim corners and fold inside out. That’s the beauty of these shams! Poke the corners out with the tips of scissors or a pencil. Iron the seam all the way around.

Measure your pillow to double check the size for the border. I created mine with a little more than a 2 inch border. You want the pillow to be snug, but fit correctly, so I made my border 2 1/4 inch in from the edge.  

Now you’ll sew it again, while it’s right side out, to create the border. I measured in 2 1/4 inch at each corner and made a mark.

Some machines have measurements on them, but I just made a small black mark on my machine at the 2 1/4 inch mark (so I didn’t have to mark my fabric all the way around) and followed around the entire pillow sham.

Insert your pillow through the opening in the back, and you’re done!