Travel Pillow Instructions

Travel Pillow

1 metre of printed fabric
1 metre of lining of same weight as print
Board – heavy weight cardboard, thin ply, hardboard, foamboard or other craft board
(I used a display board that I found in a skip, after a conference)
Felt (optional)
2oz Terylene wadding (as used in quilting etc.)
4 metres of braiding
2.5cms wide Velcro
25cms four strand elastic – for patch pocket on back flap

Full block
Roller pillow insert
Half block

This pattern is a guide and can be adjusted or adapted to suit your own requirements. I do suggest making up a ‘dummy’ one in card (cereal packets) to start with.
This pillow is designed to be worked with thin bobbins, from Winslow Bobbins, shape A on their front cover, www.winslowbobbins.com rather than travel bobbins. The flaps do not need to be as deep if you are using short bobbins.

Although I suggest 1 metre of fabric, it takes less. I made a matching zipped bobbin case and cover cloths and have fabric left over. I didn’t have enough courage to buy just ½ metre and I’d rather have a too much fabric than not enough.

The back flap is removable, thanks to Velcro. (As per the orange line on the layout sketch, pieces 1 & 5) When the whole pillow is open it covers a greater area than most of my ordinary pillows! As I use this in our motorhome space is a premium. And surely in use the back is redundant – with a removable block with due care and attention you should (hopefully) be able to turn the block round.

The layout sketch has the parts numbered to help with the instructions.

Polystyrene inserts

I already had the roller pillow insert with my block pillow. This was my starting position.
I purchased a further block and half block from SMP - www.users.zetnet.co.uk/smplace/index.htm
Cut the half block in half, lengthways, giving two long thin pieces. These will sit either side of the roller pillow or full block.
Cover the three blocks with the lining fabric. Keep the fabric as tight as possible, using pins to keep in place. Oversew in place. Sorry it’s beyond me to explain how to cover the blocks. I copied my existing blocks, mind you if you can do 'hospital corners' it will help.

Base box
2 rectangles from the board – 5.5cms x 21.5cms (Part 1 on layout)
2 rectangles – 5.5cms x 15cms (Part 2 on layout)
The sizes are approximate, the depth is taken from the depth of the block and the length and width from the placement of the blocks.

All the pieces of board, the base, the flaps and the side panels, are felted (optional) on the outside face and have wadding on the inside face. Craft/Spray Mount spray glue suggested.

Make a long tube from the print and lining, the same width as the board - long enough to take all 4 pieces.

Insert the cut board pieces – one long, one short and repeat with the other two pieces.
Pull the tube up tight with short ends of board butted to inside of longer pieces.
Oversew the two ends together to create a rectangle with the print to the outside.

(Part 3) Draw a rectangle of board to the inside of the rectangle sides to create the base of the box. The base board should sit inside the rectangle, rather than under the sides.

Make a pocket of material with print and lining for base and insert the board. Oversew open side.

Sew a piece of braid to bottom of base to aid lifting out the block or roller.

Top
Cut two squares of board the same width and height as the long side of the base.

(Part 4) Make up front square, sewing three sides with sewing machine, oversew along bottom edge to enclose the board. It is important for the fit to be cosy and fairly awkward to put in the board to give the panels a tidier finish.

(Part 5) For the back, cut lining and print to fit 3 sides of the back board, but add about 8-10 cms longer for attaching the Velcro along the bottom, giving a rectangle.
Construct a patch pocket to fit the lining and add a flap to cover. Sew round three sides of fabric to create tight cover to fit the board. Pull up and pin along the base. Sew closure with sewing machine (using zipper foot). Attach the hook side of the Velcro to the back piece of hem, as shown by the orange bar on the sketch. Match up and sew the soft, brush side to the back of the base box.

Sides

Pin front and back flaps into closed position and measure finished height and width from side base plus a rectangle the same as the base side. You should now have a triangle with a rectangle on the bottom – well, tent shaped! (See the yellowish shape on layout plan.) Shape 6 is the full area and shape 7 is half of shape 6, cut up the middle.

Cut two triangles of shape 6 and two of shape 7 for the sides. Coat with felt and wadding, remembering shape 7 will have a right and left side. Make up lining and print to fit triangles. Close and oversew bottom edge.

Oversew the two larger triangles (shape 6) to either side of the front square, to extend work area. Attach the two smaller pieces to the back board. The triangles will be the sides of the finished box. When closed the smaller part (7) should fit inside of piece 6.

Finish
Make a long bias tube about from either the print fabric or the lining and attach the braid to it. The finished bias tube width should be slightly wider than the decorative braid.
For the carrying handle attach the braid/strap to base of box and front flap and leave enough for the handle at the top.
Attach braid/strap to back of base and with small pieces of Velcro to the back board.
Use braid to make a closure for the side flaps. Put the hook Velcro on the braid and when in use put the hook onto the back base strip of Velcro, to keep it out of the way.

I hope I've covered everything and not missed out anything obvious. If you need any help please feel free to e-mail me at this address - substituting @ for the *.
e-mail address: scotprompt*blueyonder.co.uk

Downloadable printable version (no pictures) as a Word document or as a text version only.

Good luck and happy construction.