DIY child's travel pillow + pattern (sort of....)

Madelyn falls asleep in the car all the time--pretty much whenever we take the 45 minute drive to Hurricane or St. George and on vacations. I'd been meaning to do something about this:

Looks comfy, huh!

I promised to make her a travel pillow before our last road trip to Provo. I didn't want to pay for one--I'd seen other people make them on blogs but had yet to find a pattern. Sooooo....I went and found a child size travel pillow at Walmart, whipped out a piece of paper and a pen, and traced around it right there in the scented candle aisle. Very high tech method.

It still needed a few tweaks, but it gave me the general shape that I needed. So, at 11:00pm the night before we left for our trip, I finally made this:

I used some flannel I already had--the pillow is 11"x11" or so when you cut it out--you can just squeeze both pieces out of a fat quarter that's folded in half. (I love fat quarters...I've got another sewing project using them coming soon.)

When you've cut out your fabric, grab your kid and stick the loose form around their neck to make sure it will fit. I had to cut my "U" a little deeper than I had it originally.

 

Sew together front and back pieces, right sides facing, leaving a 3-inch opening. Turn inside out and press.

 

Stuff with some pillow fluff and fold in raw edges around opening--hand stitch shut.  I like to use a blind stitch, but you can use whatever stitch you're good at.

 

Done!

 The whole thing comes together very fast. You'll notice that the back part of the pillow is a little skinnier than the "arms", but that's on purpose. I've never found neck pillows comfortable because they always push my head too far forward.

 

The best part is that it works and Madelyn loves it. I'll probably make one for Luke, too. This pattern size should fit kids ages 2-8, approximately.

I scanned in the paper "pattern" I made, so you can make one, too. Just right-click on the two images, save them to your computer, print them out and tape them together. It does need a little adjusting--it shrunk the bottom part of the pillow to about 1/2 inch shorter than it should be. So bear that in mind when you're cutting it out, and add on a little extra.

 

Happy sewing!