5 Easy Steps to Turn Your Sweater Into a Flight-Worthy Pillow

Getting comfortable on a plane is… well, impossible. You have a blanket, a squishy little plane pillow supporting your lumbar, a face mask, industrial grade earplugs, a neck pillow, your comfiest sweater, thermal socks, enough Gravol to incapacitate an elephant, and yet, YET, you still only manage to catch maybe 2 hours of woefully interrupted sleep over your 10 hour flight. You can twist and turn as much as you like, your left foot is still gonna end up asleep and the temperature of a penguin’s rear.

Even so, you try to get as comfortable as possible, that first day is jam packed with stuff and there’s no time for naps! And getting comfortable doesn’t require you to bring a second carry on just for plane sleepy time supplies. No no no my friend, we are resourceful! For one, ditch that bulky neck pillow.

Ok, backstory time. Last year Kyla and I were sitting on the plane to Scotland, waiting on the tarmac. It was a redeye flight, as usual, so I was trying to mentally prepare myself to forcefully will myself to sleep. Yep.

Takeoff took a bit longer than planned. I got restless and annoyed with my inability to find a comfortable way to sit. Boredom and irritation are the parents of invention, isn’t that how the saying goes? So I grabbed my sweater and figured there had to be a way to fold it into something I could use as a neck pillow, which is something I never have luggage space to bring. It might be worth noting that I’m typically on the aisle since claustrophobic Kyla gets dibs on that sweet window seat so don’t have anything to lean on comfortably.

She looked over skeptically at my fumbling with the fabric of my sweater, “what are you doing?”
“Give me a second, I’m innovating.”
“Ok. You do you, friend.”

This is what came out of the 5 minutes that followed.


“Hey! It actually worked?!”

Heck yes it did.

I can’t claim this hack cures cabinsomnia, but it’s sure more convenient than carrying a neck pillow.

Without further ado, let’s make a sweater pillow in five easy steps!

1. Lay out your sweater as flat as possible on your lap--let’s pretend you’re sitting on a plane. Place the neckline closest to your torso, with the arms dangling at your sides.
2. If your sweater has a hood, hurray for more padding! Fold that puppy up flat inside your sweater.
3. Roll up the sweater nice and tight from neckline to waistline.
4. Fold the sleeves up on each side.
5. Invert one sleeve over top of your rolled up sweater to hold everything in place. Repeat on the other side.

Voilà! Now you have your very own neck pillow sweater burrito. You can pretty much bend it whichever way you like to give it a curve so it sits nicely.

Bon voyage, torticollis.

Gen