January 2018, when we again were traveling by plane together, he pointed out the U-shaped pillows again as someone walked past us with one attached to their suitcase handle. "Get me dimensions, and I can make one," I told him.
Time passed. I didn't give it another thought. Apparently, neither did DH. Scratch that. He thought about those little travel pillows every time he flew, whether he saw them in airport shops, or in possession of other travelers, or just because he fell asleep in his seat and woke up with a crink in his neck. But he didn't bother to get close enough to one to gauge how wide and long and thick it might be, so that he could relay that info to me and I could turn it into a sewing pattern.
When he got back from yet another work trip via airplane a few weeks ago, I decided that he was never going to actually do anything (other than complain about not having one) to facilitate the manufacture and acquisition of one of those pillows. So, I did a little googling, a little printing, some purveying of my fabric stash (which turned up nothing suitably manly for DH to use in a professional capacity), and then some shopping.
Normally I'm not big on shopping. Fabric shopping, however, is another story. This shopping was fun; it was a good excuse to go to a quilt shop about a half-hour from this little place here that I haven't been to in a few years. A quaint, cute, shop with high quality fabrics in a vast array of colors, patterns, and age range. It was a nice excursion that netted not only fabric for a travel pillow for DH, but also one for DS2--who also flies frequently for his job and has a March birthday. I also came home with 11 assorted fat quarters of fabric for random future projects. Because the fat quarters were buy 10 get 1 free, so. . .
And, they happened to throw in a full-sized Hershey bar with my purchase! Bonus! Perhaps I should frequent this shop more regularly.
Once my new fabric was washed, dried and ironed, I set to work making travel pillows for both DS2 and DH. They were super easy to make. (Even though I picked the seam out of the first one twice because I forgot which side of the fabric to attach the strap to that I wanted to add to each of them so they can be fasted to a suitcase and not get lost in transit or dashes from one terminal to another at airports.)
This is the tutorial and pattern I followed, with the exception of adding that strap (the pattern does not include one). The strap is easy to make though: cut a 2" x 8" strip of fabric. Fold in half the long way and sew right sides together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Turn right side out, fold one end in about 1/4" and then iron flat. Sew shut the turned under short end. Attach to the center top of your pillow, with the strap sandwiched between the right sides of the fabric and the raw edge even with the top of the pillow. Then just sew it down when sewing the pillow front and back together. When you turn your pillow right side out, the strap should now be on the outside and sticking out of the seam at the top of the pillow. I sewed the female part of a large snap about 1/2" from the pillow end of the strap and the male part of the snap about 1/2" from the finished (turned under and sewn) end of the strap so that when the pieces of the snap are connected, the strap forms a flat loop (make sure to sew the male part on the same side as the female so there will not be a twist in the strap).
I'm pretty happy with the resulting pillows. Hopefully their owners will find them comfortable on their next trips via airplane.
DS2's professional, manly fabric
DH's professional, manly fabric
(it nearly matches his luggage)
DH's, showing the strap for attaching to his carry-on
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