What Is a Pillow Sham? Sham vs Pillowcase, Sizes and Use
What is a pillow sham? It is a decorative cover for a bed pillow, meant to be seen on the made bed, while a pillowcase is the cover you sleep on. The two can look alike, and some are used either way, but they are built and bought for different jobs. This guide covers what a sham is, how to tell it from a pillowcase, whether you can sleep on one, the usual sizes, how to arrange shams on a bed and how to wash them.
What is a pillow sham?
The dictionaries that list the bedding sense define it plainly. Merriam-Webster lists “an ornamental covering for a pillow” as one sense of sham, and Collins gives “a decorative cover for a bed pillow”. The bedding sense is more at home in American English: Cambridge and Oxford Learner's, two British learner dictionaries, list only the everyday meaning of sham, something that is not what it seems.
A sham is usually closed all round except for an opening at the back, where the pillow goes in, fastened with an overlapping envelope flap, a hidden zip or buttons. Many have a flange, a flat border of fabric around the edge, although knife-edge shams without one also exist. The fabric is usually chosen for looks: quilted, jacquard, embroidered, velvet or linen, often matching a duvet cover or a quilt rather than the sheets.
Pillow sham vs pillowcase
The quickest way to tell them apart is to look at several features together, because none of them decides it on its own.
| Feature | Pillow sham | Pillowcase |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Usually at the back, with an envelope flap, a hidden zip or buttons | Usually at one end, often with an inner flap to tuck the pillow in |
| Edge | Often a flange, sometimes a plain knife edge | Usually plain seams, no border |
| Fabric | Chosen for looks, often textured or embellished | Smooth, usually matching the sheets |
| Usually sold with | Duvet covers, quilts and bedspreads | Sheet sets |
| At night | Usually taken off or set behind the sleeping pillows | Slept on |
There are overlaps. Some pillowcases open at the back rather than at one end, and a knife-edge sham in a plain fabric can look almost identical to a pillowcase. When the features point different ways, what the maker calls it and what it is sold with usually settle the question.
Can you sleep on a pillow sham?
Yes. A sham is a pillow cover, and nothing about it stops you sleeping on it. Whether it is comfortable is another matter, and it comes down to how it is made: raised embroidery or a textured weave can press into your face, and a fabric that needs spot cleaning or dry cleaning cannot go through the wash as often as a cover you sleep on every night. A plain, washable sham in a soft fabric works much like a pillowcase.
That is why shams usually come off at night, or move behind the sleeping pillows, while you sleep on a pillowcase. It is a practical habit rather than a rule. If the pillowcase you sleep on is silk, our guide to the best silk pillowcase covers what to look for, from the closure to the weight of the fabric.
Pillow sham sizes
In the US, shams are usually sold in the same named sizes as pillows: standard for a 20 × 26 inch pillow, queen for 20 × 30, king for 20 × 36 and Euro for a square 26 × 26 inch pillow. Brands do not all agree on queen: some make queen shams, others say a standard sham fits a queen pillow.
Two things are worth knowing before you order. The size usually names the pillow, not the cover, so the finished sham tends to measure a little more, and more again if it has a flange. We found no official standard behind these figures, only the sizes that retailers use, so the maker's own measurements are the ones to check.
Pillows in Europe mostly come in other sizes, for example 80 × 80 cm and 40 × 80 cm in Germany. The Euro sham's 26 × 26 inch square is closest to the 65 × 65 cm pillow found in Switzerland, not to the usual German sizes. Which pillowcase fits which pillow is covered in our guide to pillowcase sizes.
Euro shams and how to arrange shams on a bed
A Euro sham covers a large square pillow and usually sits in the back row, upright against the headboard. It gives the bed height and is rarely slept on.
There are two common ways to arrange a bed with shams. In a stacked arrangement, the sleeping pillows lie flat and the shams lie on top of them. In a layered arrangement, everything stands upright in rows, tallest at the back: Euro shams against the headboard, then the sleeping pillows or standard shams, then any small cushions in front.
Washing shams and pillowcases
Because you sleep on it, a pillowcase is usually washed more often than a sham. How often a sham needs washing depends on whether it is slept on or only displayed: one that stays on the bed by day and comes off at night can be washed less often than a pillowcase that is slept on.
Whatever the cover, the care label decides. Embroidered, velvet or embellished shams often call for a gentle cycle, hand washing or spot cleaning, and silk has its own detergent and handling rules, set out in our guide on how to wash silk. A plain cotton or linen sham can usually be machine washed.
Silk pillowcases at RENESSY
We make silk pillowcases, not shams. The RENESSY silk pillowcases are made from 100% organic mulberry silk at 22 momme, with silk on both faces, and the raw silk is rated grade 6A. Each case closes with a hidden YKK zip under an inner fabric flap. The silk is GOTS certified. The pillowcases carry the OEKO-TEX MADE IN GREEN label, and the label ID M27MNB1V9 can be checked on the OEKO-TEX website. They also carry the Dermatest 5-Star seal and the Dermatest Sensitive Skin seal, dermatologically tested for sensitive skin.
Frequently asked questions
Is a pillow sham the same as a pillowcase?
No. Both cover a pillow, but a sham is a decorative cover shown on the made bed, usually with a back opening and often a flange, while a pillowcase is usually open at one end and is the cover you sleep on.
Do you need pillow shams?
No. Shams are there for how the bed looks, and a bed works perfectly well with pillowcases alone. What a silk pillowcase does and does not do on the pillow you sleep on is covered in our article on silk pillowcase benefits.
Do you put a pillowcase under a sham?
You can. A sham can go over a pillow that already has a pillowcase on it, which lets you take the sham off at night and sleep on the case. A sham can also go straight onto a pillow insert kept for display.
Why is it called a sham?
In everyday English, a sham is something that is not what it seems. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary, on Dictionary.com, also records the sense of a cover that gives a thing a different outward appearance, with the pillow sham as its example. That is what a sham does: it dresses the pillow for the day.
Sources
- Merriam-Webster: sham
- Dictionary.com (Random House Unabridged Dictionary): sham
- Collins English Dictionary, as shown on Dictionary.com: pillow sham
- Cambridge Dictionary: sham
- Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: sham
RENESSY · Updated September 2026