As someone who travels frequently, I find those U-shaped neck pillows quite handy. If I’m napping during a flight, I’m not a fan of leaning on a stranger or pressing up again the window. I wanted to share the U-shape pillow love with my travel aficionado friends.  Instead of buying the pillows, I decided to make them. This allowed me to customize them for each person’s personality and comfort.

I visited my local fabric store where I purchased some fun and luxurious fabrics and Kwik Sew Pattern 3283. I later discovered that if you search for “Free U-shaped Neck Pillow Pattern” or “Free Travel Neck Pillow Pattern”, you will find an abundance of FREE patterns. To save you some time, here’s a link to a free travel pillow patterns.

This was a project that as a beginner I was easily able to complete in one sitting. All of the following instructions are clearly laid out in the Kwik Sew pattern.

I laid out the pattern and cut my fabric with my trusty rotary cutter.

After cutting my pattern, I pinned the two pieces together with right sides facing inward.

I sewed the edges together with a 0.25″ allowance and left a gap along the top to allow for stuffing.

After sewing the edges together, I followed the instructions provided and clipped excess fabric in the curved areas. Once I did this, I turned the pillow inside out and stuffed it. I used a half a bag of 20 oz. polyfil to create a nice firm pillow. You can use more or less stuffing depending on your preference for pillow firmness. Alternatively, you can also stuff the pillow with buckwheat or rice. This allows you to microwave the pillow for warmth and comfort during at-home use. After stuffing, I hand-sewed the pillow shut. This turned out to be the trickiest part. My hand-sewing skills could use a little practice. In less than an hour, I had the perfect gift for my travel buddy.