Getting Ready to Fly

I'm so excited because in two days I will be flying away to AUSTRALIA!!!!  My mom and two sisters live there, and now I get to take the 24 hour flight to go see them.  I live in New York so this is quite a trip (and not one that happens often).

To Say that I am happy to see my mom and sisters is an understatement.  I can't wait.  I have not seem my mom for almost three years.  That is a long time.  Since my father died a year ago last August seeing my mom and family has become really important.  Although we can't really afford it, we are stretching our budget and taking the plunge.  I HAVE to see my family.

So in preparing to take the LONG flight I got to thinking about my neck pillow.  If you are not familiar with the very easy blowup neck pillow you have never traveled in style.

With my handy neck pillow and the aid of a Tylenol PM I can sleep for six or seven hours on the plane.  This is a godsend when you have those long flights, and I can't think of a longer flight than from LA to Brisbane (that is 14 hours in the air).

The problem with this neck pillow is that the seams tend to chafe my neck.  So I decided to make a handy little pillow case for it.

I used some funky fabric I got on my last trip to Ikea (love that Ikea fabric).

Here's what I did.

I measured the shape and cut it out with  my shearing scissors so that I don't have to worry about frayed edges (don't want to get afrayed, lol).

Turn fabric front side IN.

Pin and sew.

Turn right side in, and insert blow up neck pillow.  It was at this point that I realized the pillow case was not going to fit over the pillow once it was blown up, so I inserted the pillow, and then blew it up.

To do this I had to make a hole for the spout.

(It is a bit messy but it works.  I did this after I had sewn the pillowcase.)

I then finished off the edges of the open end and my pillow case was done.  BUT I can't travel to Australia without a nice little bag to hold the pillow.

front

back

bag with deflated pillow

So there you have it.  I will be flying on a jet plane (had to fit that in) in style with my bright and fun blow up pillow and matching little bag.

What do you think?  Do you use neck pillows when you travel (if not you have to try it)?