How to Make a King Size Pillow Sham

A few weeks ago I purchased this beautiful duvet cover from Pottery Barn.

Unfortunately, Pottery Barn does not sell king size pillow shams in this pattern.  Actually, I don't think they sell king size pillow shams in the majority of their bedding.

That was okay...I had a plan.  When I bought the duvet cover I remembered seeing a shower curtain in the same pattern.  I went back to the store the next day and the shower curtain was gone.  Ugh!  I called all of the Pottery Barn stores near me and none of them had the shower curtain and weren't sure when they would get them in.  So instead I checked out ebay and bought a new in package shower curtain, in the pattern I needed.  As a bonus, it actually cost me less than it would have in the store 

and arrived in only a few days.  

My king size pillow inserts measure 36" x 20".  In order to make a pillow sham with a 3" flange, I added 3 inches plus 1 inch for seam allowance making the total measurement of the front of each pillow 40" x 24" (36 + 3 + 1=40 and 20 + 3 + 1 = 24)

Shower curtains typically measure 72" x 72".  Because I would be cutting three widths of 24" I measured the shower curtain, just to make sure it really measured 72".  Well it didn't...so I had to adjust my 24" measurement so that all of the pieces I would cut would be equal (always measure twice, cut once).  For the back of each pillow I cut two pieces of fabric - one measuring 32" x 24" and one measuring 16" x 32".  Since I was making two shams I cut two of everything.

With right sides together I placed one front and the two back pieces together and then sewed around all four sides.  I was strategic in how I cut the fabric and used the hemmed edges for the back envelope section.  It saved one step in my sewing.

Then I turned the pillow right side out and ironed all of the edges flat.  Then I used a square and drew a light pencil line on the back side of pillow for the two inch flange all around (now my plan was to make a three inch flange, but once I had to reduce the sides because the shower curtain didn't really measure 72", the flange had to shrink a bit as well).  

That was it...once I got all of the measurements straight, the actual sewing took no time at all.

Here is the finished pillow sham.

Here is the back of the pillow...

and here is a close-up of the envelope closure.  

Here is how it looks in our bedroom.

These new pillow shams complete the look of our bed.

These pillow shams also cost about half of what it would have cost me to buy either the euro sham or standard sham that Pottery Barn does sell.  I have a little bit of fabric left too and I'm sure I'll figure out something to use it on.

Can't wait to hear what you think of my new pillow shams.

-Judy

Partying at Freckled Laundry, My Repurposed Life