Deep from My WIP Pile

An article by Rachel    Comments Off

Many many years ago, my grandma asked me to make pillow shams with a flange to coordinate with a quilt she made for one of my aunts. I immediately let the fabrics hide away in the bottom of plastic tub, aging as all good fabric should, because I knew she still need to quilt the quilt. Fortunately for the fabric, I have a running list of all my WIP, and I decided that I really need to knock something off that list. The pillows shams rose to the top, because I thought they would be the easiest to finish.

Well they weren’t hard to make. However they did qualify as a pain to make. First my grandma gave me two pieces of fabric, a fish print for the pillow and a solid green for the flange. I quickly decided the dark green was unsuitable for the flange, because it didn’t contrast with the fish print, nor did it coordinate with the fish print. I think she just gave it to me because it was the remaining fabric from the quilt. So off I went to the fabric store.

Before I went to the fabric store, I calculated what I needed. I was blown away when I realized I needed three yards. I only add enough fish print for the body of the two pillows. I need fabric for the back and the flange. Another note, I decided to make the shams fit a queen-sized pillow, which is 20″ x 30″. I ended up buying a black print with charcoal gingko flowers. It fit the Asian theme.

After cutting the fabric, I realized that the fabric wasn’t wide enough to make an overlapping flap on the back. Really, I wanted a solution that didn’t involve buying more fabric. So I bought invisible zippers, which is so much cheaper than buying fabric. Not! Regardless, they worked perfectly.

The picture doesn’t do the fabric justice. My lights brought out the blue dye in the black fabric, and I’m too lazy to wait for daylight for a better photo opportunity.

Lessons learned:

Even though I made the pillow covers for a queen-sized pillow, they are a bit baggy. I’m not a big fan of baggy pillow covers. I prefer a stuffed look. I’m going to suggest that my aunt buys king-sized pillows. They’ll look a lot better.

The flange is 4″ finished. It’s a bit floppy for my personal preferences. Stuffing the pillow tighter might improved the look. Before I make pillow shams like these again, I’ll check out the pillow displays at Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Macy’s. There has to be an ideal width.

And I will get another opportunity. I have big plans for my bedroom. I just need to fork out the money to get my bed quilt quilted.