Yesterday when I showed you our spring-y master bedroom update, I mentioned that I made the Euro shams you saw on our bed.
If you’ve been reading our blog for very long, you probably know I’m no stranger to 1) a sewing machine or 2) making pillows. In fact, after a little search for the word “pillow” on my own blog, I came up with at least 6 tutorials on the subject.
There were the tree pillows and the placemat pillows…
Ones made from shower curtains and sweaters…
And pillows with burnt flowers and felt flowers.
I promise I’m not planning on renaming this blog “Pillow Power!” anytime soon, but I did want to share a quick and easy tutorial for making Euro Shams.
Why did I decide to make my own versus buying them pre-made? Well, for the price of 2 shams, I was able to pick up an extra set of gray curtains to make the 2 cases AND a runner for across the foot of the bed. So are you ready to see how it was done?
Tutorial: Euro Shams with Flanges
I made envelope-style shams with flanges to cover these two 26″ x 26″ pillows.
Step 1: Cut three pieces of material to the following sizes: (1) 29″ x 29″ and (2) 17″ x 29″
Why these measurements? My pillows were not very dense, so I wanted to make the cases fit snugly. I decided to pretend they were 25″ x 25″ and added 2 inches all around (for 1/2″ seam allowance and 1-1/2″ flange).
The pieces for the envelope back were 17″ wide so that there would be approximately 5 inches of overlap. I saved some time by reusing the finished edge of the curtain panel on these pieces.
I probably would have cut these pieces an inch wider if I had to finish these edges myself.
Step 2: With the right sides of the fabric together, lay the 2 back pieces on top of the front panel and line up the outside edges.
Below you can see how the back panels should overlap.
Step 3: Pin the panels together around the edges.
It’s a good idea to place pins on those hemmed edges of the back panels to keep them in place while sewing.
Step 4: Sew around the edges with a 1/2″ seam allowance.
Step 5: Turn the pillow case right side out and iron flat.
At this stage, I took a quick peek at the Flange Pillow Tutorial over at Casa Brasi to make sure I had the rest of the plan right (thanks for the great tutorial, Amanda!). Yep, it really is as easy as it looks!
Step 6: Measure 1-1/2″ in on all four sides. Place pins or make a mark along these lines.
Step 7: Sew along your line of pins, making sure to backstitch over the points where your back panels join the front panel. (These are the points that will get the most wear and tear when you’re changing out your pillows.)
Step 8: Stuff your pillows, and you’re done!
Here’s a shot of the pillow from the front.
And here’s how it looks in the back – envelope pocket and all.
There you have it – quick and easy pillow shams with flanges!
I’m glad I took the extra 5 minutes to add the flanges because they really make the pillows more visible at the back of our bed.
I got both shams out of one curtain panel, so I just ironed and draped the second panel over the foot of the bed to break up the pattern a bit. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right?
I hope you’ll try out flange pillows yourself sometime. Thanks again to Amanda for the easy to reference tutorial and thanks to YOU for reading! Love you guys!
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