How to Sew an Envelope-Style Pillow Sham

X-HT-300558

Why buy when you can DIY? Making your own decorative pillow shams is an easy way to coordinate all of your bedroom's décor for a cohesive and stylish look. Our shams are sized for bedroom pillow covers, but you can easily adapt this step-by-step tutorial to any size pillow. The envelope opening on the back of the sham makes it simple to insert your pillow form. We chose to match our pillow shams to our comforter fabric, but a coordinating fabric would look great too! Join us for this easy sewing project that's fast and fun to make.

Video Chapters:

Intro - 0:00 min.
Measuring & Cutting Plates - 0:36 min.
Creating Envelope Opening on Back Plate - 3:15 min.
Sewing Bottom & Top Plates Together - 6:10 min.
Inserting Pillow Form - 9:03 min.
Materials & Tools List - 10:34 min.

Materials List:

Upholstery fabric of choice
Seamstick 1/4" Basting Tape for Canvas & Upholstery (36 yds.) (#122065)
Coats Extra Strong® Tex 70 Black Nylon Upholstery Thread (150 yds.) (#104813)

Tools List:

Tape Measure 120" (#102986)
Tempered Cutting Glass for Hotknife (#121915)
Clear Acrylic Ruler 6" x 24" (#102400)
Sailrite® Ultrafeed® LSZ Walking Foot Sewing Machine (#311602)
Chalk Pencil Cartridge Set (#121669)
Sailrite® Edge Cordless Hotknife 18V Package (#122177)
Forked Magic Pins 1‑3/4" (30 pack) (#122801)
Deluxe 5‑1/2" Magnetic Sewing Guide (#103597)

DIY Envelope Pillow Cover 2 — The fabric for our pillow shams matches the comforter we made and helps tie the whole room together!

You can make an envelope-style pillow cover for any size pillow. In the video, we show you how to measure the pillow and then use those measurements to calculate the dimensions of the top pillow plate and bottom pillow plate. The bottom plate needs to be longer than the top plate to accommodate the 6-inch overlap that creates the envelope-style opening in the back of the cover for inserting the pillow form.

In this easy DIY video, you'll learn how to measure and cut the fabric plates, how to create the envelope opening, how to sew the bottom and top plates together, and how to insert the pillow form. This is a very easy project that's a great beginner sewing tutorial. Watch the video to learn how to make a pillow sham.

This project is part of our RV Renovation Series. If you'd like to learn how to sew a comforter to match your decorative pillow shams, watch our video "How to Sew a Comforter" (#300557XHT). If you want to view more projects in our RV Renovation Series, click here!