Traveling Project #1 - Neck Pillow

As I mentioned in the Traveling Tips post, our first long car trip with Andrew was a drive out to Iowa to see Hubby's family. Andyroo did not enjoy sleeping in the car, but I think part of that was due to the fact that he was uncomfortable. Hus poor head was flopping all over the place as he was trying to sleep. The big, full size pillows that we brought did NOT fit well behind his head. Poor kid.

Needless to say, I needed to do something about that for our next drive - Phoenix, AZ! I've seen neck pillows in the store - for $10 or $15, but knew I could do one for cheaper that would be customized to something my son likes. Something like this!

Don't you love his crazy hair!?

I searched and searched the stores and online for a cute Thomas the Train fabric. I was running out of time and didn't want to pay $5 for a yard of fabric to be shipped to me. I forgot that Hobby Lobby has fabric (it's a fairly new store around here, so it's not the first craft store that pops into my head), so I made a quick trip to scout out their fabric. I was in luck - the only place in town that carries Thomas fabric! It wasn't exceptionally cute, but it would work. It was Thomas and that's what Andyroo would care about.

The pattern was pretty simple. I just cut out a kind of closed C shape. When I was cutting, I kept thinking I was cutting out a toilet seat (the ones that aren't closed all the way). This is what I can up with. I actually think that I would have liked it to be a little more closed, but I didn't realize that until it was done and I let Andyroo try it.

Cut two. Pretty simple. Sew the two pieces together, with right sides together. Leave a small opening in the middle, either on the inside of the curve or the outside of the curve. Turn it right side out and stuff. Either hand stitch the opening or turn the edges under a little and machine stitch.

This worked really well for Andyroo! Much, much, much better than trying to maneuver a full-size pillow around in his car seat. And much cheaper than $10-!5 dollars to buy one at the store. By my estimation, based on the amount of material and stuffing I used, it cost me about $3 to make. I still have fabric and stuffing leftover for other projects!

Be sure to check out our other articles and projects to help prepare for your vacations:


Traveling Project #2 - Car Mat
Traveling Project #3 - Quiet Books
Traveling on a Plane with Small Children
Road Trips with Small Children