Tablecloth to Pillow Shams

I've wanted to recover the pillows on our living room sofas for a few years now. I still love the fabric & pattern, but it's a bit dark for this time of year. Plus there are a few pulls in the material. I didn't want to replace them as they are perfectly good pillows. Just needed refreshing.

I looked periodically for store bought shams without finding anything I really loved enough for the price. I did once find fabric I loved to make my own with but even at half off was looking at over $40. I knew I could do better. And I did. Last week shopping with my mom, I found this tablecloth with the perfect colors to coordinate with my living room and I liked the clean simple stripes. Best of all $14 plus tax.

After washing it and accidentally shrinking it (oops!), it turned out to be the perfect amount of fabric. I literally just cut it into 4 pieces. Sewed one hem - the exposed edge is the original hem from the tablecloth. Folded each piece, sewed up the sides, flipped them inside out and I had 4 shams as easy as that. Here are the two (new & old) together on the main sofa:

New striped sham. Old blocked pattern pillow.

Supplies: tablecloth, thread.