Yesterday, I shared a quilt I made for my daughter's twin bed for Christmas. Today, I'm sharing a tutorial on how to make a matching full-size pillow sham from leftover charm squares.
You will need:
24 charm squares (or 30 if your pillow is pretty fluffy -- I'll explain below!)
Approx 1/2 yard to 5/8 yard of fabric for backing (again, fluffiness factor!)
20 x 28" batting scrap (I attached several smaller batting scraps together with a zig zag stitch)
20 x 28" piece of fabric (this will be hidden on the inside)
Optional: binding strips (three 2 1/2 inch x width of fabric strips should be plenty)
Sew your charm squares together in 4 rows of 6. To quilt the front of the sham, I layered my pieced charm squares, batting and scrap cotton piece and used a decorative stitch through all of the seams. (Note: photos were taken after I quilted and trimmed off the excess backing and batting!) You can see the stitch better from the inside view (below). You could also quilt 1/4 inch on either side of the seam, or practice your free-motion quilting if you prefer!
I did trim the length of the quilted piece 3/4 inch on either side before assembling the pillow, so my final measurement was 18 x 26". If your pillow is fluffy, make five rows of six, and after quilting, trim 3/4" off both sides of the length, and about 1 1/4 inches off the top and bottom. This should yield the standard 20 x 26" measurement.
For your pillow backing, measure the width of your pillow (mine was 18") and cut two pieces 18" (or your width) x 18". Disclaimer -- I actually cut my pieces a little extra long, which made the pillow a bit tricky to stuff inside. I also was lazy and used the untrimmed selvege edge instead of hemming the two envelope flaps! Normally, I turn under and stitch a 1/2" hem on the two envelope flaps before assembling the sham. If you are using directional fabric, be sure to put the hem on opposite sides (otherwise one of your envelope flaps will be upside down)! Lay the first envelope flap, right sides together, over your quilted sham top.
Lay the second envelope flap on top and pin. Stitch around all four edges (I used a 1/4" seam, but you can go a little wider, especially if you are working with the 20" x 26" size. Turn inside out and admire your work!
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Thank you for the helpful tutorial -- I'll be putting it to use! I want to make matching shams for a quilt I have planned for my grandson and this will be perfect.
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