Yardage for Euro Shams: (simply SKIP this post if you are NOT a decorator or designer)
December 12, 2009
ONLY for Decorators and Designers, from Margo 12-12-09
This blog is for ALL entrepreneurs and business people. However, I do train a lot of decorators, so the ONLY for DECORATORS and DECORATORS posts can be skipped over if you are in a different industry.
A Tip About Yardage for Euro Shams:
When calculating yardage for the body of a 26″ European sham, allow more than just 3/4 per yard of fabric for the body of each sham, here’s why:
A European (or Euro) sham is 26″ square finished (some may be a tad bigger or smaller).
Your cut measurement for the front of the sham is 27″, which is 26″ plus an allowance of 1/2 inch per side for seams (FYI: some people go with 26″, since they do not add a seam allowance on pillows or shams because it gives a tighter fit when the product is complete).
Each Euro sham has a front and a back, and the back is made of two pieces (unless it is a zippered sham) that are overlapped to make a slit where the pillow goes in.
If the back was made out of just one piece of fabric, then both the front and the back of the sham could possibly be cut from one width of fabric (if the fabric were a solid), but the fabric would have to be at least 54″ wide to allow for seams (and some fabrics are only 52″ even though they say 54″).
Fabrics that are not a solid have a pattern repeat, so you need additional fabric to match the patterns.
A regular Euro sham is not zippered (unless you request it), so to make the back of the sham takes two pieces of fabric that are folded over each other and hemmed to make the opening. Each of the 2 back portions (for the same sgam) takes a piece of fabric that is about 26″ long by at least 16″ wide, so you cannot get the front of the sham AND both back sections from one cut of fabric, even if the fabric were a solid.
So technically, we could do a solid fabric Euro sham without cording in just over 1.5 yards (without the cording), so we round it to 2 yards.
We would definitely need the full 2 if we had a large repeat. Then we add 1/2 yard for cording (even though the extra cutoff scrap might be enough for the cording).
Margo
Filed under: Dip Into Design, Education, For Decorators and Designers: Workroom and Measuring Tips, ONLY for Decorators and Designers
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