How to Sew a Pillow Cover with Flanges

As a part of our master bedroom makeover, I bought fabric to make my own euro shams (with some encouragement from Courtney).  Mind you, I’d never made euro shams before, let alone sewn a throw pillow, but with the help of some googling, I managed to figure it out and thought I’d share a quick how-to for anyone else wanting a quick and easy change for your room!
I have to give credit to Meredith, who posted a tutorial for the euro shams she did for their bedroom.  She made it easy-peasy! 

Step 1.  First, you need to decide on what size your pillow cover will be.  I was making euro shams, which are typically 26x26, so I started with that.  Then added a few inches all around for the flanges (I wanted mine to be around 2 1/2-3 inches wide), then added another 1 1/2 inches for seam allowances, so I came to 32 x 32.

• Because I was using expensive fabric, I decided to back it with a less expensive twill.  I wanted an envelope closure, so I cut 2 pieces out of the twill that were 32 x 18 (I wanted the “envelope” part to overlap – 18 + 18 = 36 which equals about 4 inches overlap). 
• {keep in mind that you’ll want to finish the edges of your back pieces, so make sure to include enough fabric for your seam allowances, too!}

{at this point, I was following the other tutorial which says to place your fabrics right sides together and pin around the edges, so I did.  Nevermind the fact that she was using curtain panels which already had finished edges, so I had to un-pin everything to finish the edges of my 2 back pieces.}
Step 2: (If you don’t already have finished edges where the envelope closure will be, hem those now!), then place fabrics right-sides together and  pin all around the edges.  {Tip: If your pins are perpendicular to the direction you’ll be sewing, you can sew right over them without having to remove them as you go!}



Step 3:  Sew along all 4 sides of your fabric (with right-sides together).  Make sure to  back-stitch a few times where your envelope closures meet as they will get the most wear & tear.

Step 4: Turn your pillow case right side out and press the edges {and anywhere else that may need pressing}. 

SIDENOTE:  If you don’t want flanges, you are DONE!  It seriously takes no time at all to do just a basic cover! 

Here’s what the back looks like at this point…

Step 5:  Measure out how large you want your flanges to be and pin or mark your line to sew.  {This is a good time to double check how large you want the actual pillow casing to be – I wanted mine to be around 25 1/2 inches, so I just made the flanges as large as they needed to be for my pillow to fit.}  I made 3 of these, and each one is just a tad different due to how much seam allowance I ended up using.  No worries, you can’t tell once they’re finished and on the bed!

The first pillow I made, I pinned all the way around for my 3 inch flange.  That took for.ev.er, so I decided to try something else for the remaining two pillows: chalk!  I just made little marks as I measured and connected them with chalk.  It wipes off the twill really easily (and white chalk on white twill can hardly be seen anyway). 

And, learn from my experience…

Wah, wah.  Thankfully I had enough of the twill fabric to cut another back piece. 

Wah. Wah. x2.  I finished sewing an entire edge before I realized my bobbin was empty and I had just wasted the last 5 minutes.  Then I couldn’t remember how to wind a new bobbin so I had to get out my manual.  Am I the only one who has to use my manual every time I sew?

If you can avoid the mistakes I made, you can have new pillows for your bed in about 30 minutes!  Ta da!