How to Make Your Own Pregnancy Pillow

The cheap pregnancy pillows go flat by your third trimester. The good ones cost real money and still might not sit right under your particular bump. So make one — or fake one — and keep adding fill until it actually feels good.

You don't need a sewing machine for the first option here. You might not need to buy anything at all.

Pick your shape first: U, C, wedge or straight body pillow

Decide what you want the thing to hold up before you think about fabric.

U shape. Wraps all the way round — one arm under your bump, one behind your back. Best support going if you're a committed side sleeper. Also big, greedy with mattress space, and awkward to roll over inside.

C shape. Same idea, one side open. Much easier to get in and out of, which matters at 3am. This is what most no-sew hacks accidentally end up making.

Wedge. A small triangle that props your bump or tucks behind your lower back. Not a body pillow replacement — but if you already sleep with a pillow you like, a wedge plus that pillow is often enough.

Straight body pillow. Easiest to sew, cheapest to buy, simplest to wash. You hug it, one end under your belly, the other between your knees. No back support unless you add a second pillow behind you.

Quick test: lie on your side tonight with whatever's already on the bed and notice where you feel unsupported. That gap is your shape.

The no-sew route: turning sweatpants, a duvet or spare bed pillows into belly support

Start here even if you own a machine. It takes five minutes, and you'll learn what fill level you like before you cut any fabric.

The sweatpants hack. Grab a pair you don't mind sacrificing, ideally with elastic cuffs or a drawstring waist. Stuff one leg with a pillow or a rolled duvet, stuff the other the same way, tie or zip the openings shut. Now you've got a U-shaped pillow made of two tubes joined at the waistband. Put the waistband under your bump with the legs running past your knees, or flip it so the waistband sits behind your back. Hair ties do the job if the cuffs are loose.

A rolled duvet works alone too. Roll it lengthways as tight as you can, tie it in two or three places with a belt or a pair of tights, and you've got a long firm tube that tucks under your belly and between your knees.

Spare bed pillows are the least glamorous option and the one most people end up using. One under your bump, one behind your back so you don't roll flat, one between your knees so your hips stay level. Three ordinary pillows do most of what an expensive one does. With only two, the bump pillow and the knee pillow matter more than the back one.

And if your pillow already feels too thin, you don't need a new one — you need more fill. Open a seam at one end, push in extra stuffing, pin or stitch it shut.

Sewing your own maternity body pillow: measuring, marking and cutting your pattern

Pick fabric with a bit of give — a cotton blend, jersey, or a brushed cotton sheet. Anything stiff will fight you at the seams. Wash and dry it first, because fabric shrinks and you don't want the pillow shrinking after it's stuffed.

Then measure your own body, not a number off the internet. Lie on your side and measure from your shoulder to just past your knees — that's your length. For width, hug a pillow and see what feels comfortable to wrap an arm and a knee around; usually somewhere near half your shoulder width plus a bit.

Cut two identical panels. Fold the fabric in half and cut both layers at once so they match exactly. Mark your seam line in chalk or washable marker, and leave seam allowance — the extra fabric beyond your line, about half an inch, that disappears inside the seam. Cut on your stitching line and you'll have nothing left to sew.

Pin the panels right sides together, meaning the good sides face each other so the raw edges end up hidden inside. Pin every few inches, and leave one short end open for stuffing.

Making a pattern without buying one (or where the free PDF patterns come in)

Three easy options if you'd rather not pay for a pattern.

Trace something you own. Lay a body pillow or long cushion on newspaper or flattened cardboard, draw around it, add half an inch all the way round. Done. You can also draw straight onto the fabric if you're careful.

Start from a rectangle and taper it. Cut a long rectangle using your shoulder-to-knee measurement, then soften the ends. That's genuinely all most body pillow shapes are.

Print a free PDF pattern. There are decent free maternity and body pillow patterns out there. Just check the print scale first — most spread across several pages you tape together, and if your printer scaled them down even slightly, the panels won't match. Print one page, measure the test square, then print the rest.

Stuffing and firmness: how much fill you need and why store-bought pillows feel thin

This is the part the sewing tutorials skip, and it's the part that decides whether you sleep.

Store-bought pregnancy pillows often feel thin because fill costs money and takes up shipping space. Manufacturers put in enough to hold shape on a shelf, not enough to hold your hips level at 2am. Plenty of people end up adding fill to a pillow they just bought.

So go firmer than feels right at first. A few rules that work:

• Squeeze it. It should hold its shape when you let go, but dent under a thumb. Springs back like a brick? Overstuffed. Sags and stays sagged? Not finished.
• Add fill in small handfuls, evenly. Big clumps become lumps you'll feel by week two.
• Pack the ends firmer than the middle. The middle is where your bump presses, and you want it soft enough to give.
• Leave a way back in. Don't seal the last seam permanently — safety pins or a loose hand stitch mean you can top it up next month.
• Buy more fill than you think you need. Loose polyester fill compresses over time, and you'd rather have a spare bag than be shopping at 38 weeks.

If you gutted an old pillow to reuse its filling, expect to need extra. That fill has already flattened once.

Finishing the seams so they survive nine months of nightly use

A pillow you lie on every night gets more abuse than most clothes. A single straight seam will pop.

The standard finish: deal with the raw edges so they don't fray — that's serging, where a machine wraps the edge in thread. No serger? A zigzag stitch does the same job. Then fold the edge over about half an inch and run a visible line of stitching along it to hold it flat. That's top-stitching — the neat line you see on the outside edge of shop-bought cushions.

Use a stretch stitch on anything curved or stretchy. It's a stitch that zigzags slightly instead of running dead straight, so the seam flexes with the pillow rather than snapping when you bend it.

Two more things that genuinely matter: backstitch at the start and end of every seam so it can't unravel, and go over the corners and the stuffed end twice. Those give first.

Sew a washable pillow cover — and why you'll want two

Once your pillow is full of loose fill, it can't go in the machine. Properly, anyway. So the cover is what keeps it usable for the whole pregnancy — and well past it.

Make an envelope cover: three panels of fabric overlapping at the back like a folded letter, so there's no zip, no buttons, and nothing digging into your ribs at night. Cut the panels slightly bigger than the pillow, hem the edges, and overlap the back pieces by a good few inches so nothing gapes when you roll over.

If your pillow is straight, a king-size pillowcase does the same job in thirty seconds.

Get two covers, not one. You'll be sweating, leaking, and probably eating toast in bed, and a spare means you can wash one without losing your pillow for a night. Wash weekly-ish in warm water and dry it fully before it goes back on.

What to use instead of a pregnancy pillow if you'd rather not make anything

Nothing wrong with skipping the project entirely. Anything long enough to hug and firm enough to hold its shape will do:

• A body pillow you already own, plus a second pillow behind your back.
• Two or three bed pillows arranged as bump, back and knee support.
• A rolled duvet or tightly rolled blanket, tied so it doesn't unroll.
• Your current pillow topped up with extra fill.
• A small wedge under the bump if you're mostly comfortable and just need a little lift.

Whichever you pick, a washable outer case makes it far easier to live with.

Making the bed with a pregnancy pillow, and using it after baby arrives

A U or C pillow takes up serious mattress. If you share a bed, that's a real conversation. Two fixes: slide it under your regular pillows during the day so the bed looks like a bed, or park it at the foot of the bed until you climb in. At night, plenty of people stack their normal pillow on top rather than choosing between the two.

One clear warning: a pregnancy pillow is not a baby sleep surface. Don't put a newborn down on it or leave one unsupervised on it. It's for you.

After baby arrives it keeps earning its place — a backrest for night feeds, support under your arm while feeding, a prop for supervised tummy time, and later a big floor cushion for sitting with a baby on your lap. Most people get a year or more out of one before passing it on.

Questions I get asked about all this

How do you actually make one, start to finish?

Measure the shape you want, cut two matching panels — or rip the seam on a pillow you already own and reuse it — pin and mark your stitching lines, sew along them, then stuff to the firmness you like. Finish the open edge by folding it over about half an inch and running a visible stitch line along it, using a stretch stitch so it flexes.

What can I use instead of a pregnancy pillow?

Spare bed pillows, a rolled duvet, or a body pillow you've already got. If your current pillow feels thin, add fill rather than buying new. A washable outer case makes any of these easier to keep clean.

What about a cervical pillow?

Same steps, smaller result. Measure, make or gut a pillow, mark and pin, sew your lines, stuff. Keep a cervical pillow smaller and noticeably firmer than a body pillow, and give it a removable cover you can wash.

Can I do this with no sewing at all?

Yes. The sweatpants version needs nothing but pants and something to stuff them with. It won't look like a shop-bought pillow, but it'll hold your bump and your knees apart tonight, which was the point.

By the time you're folding this pillow away, you'll be shopping for something much smaller. When baby's ready to be up on their feet, Baby Sock Shoe's first-shoe guide and sock sizing guide will tell you what size to buy — and those are a lot easier to get right than a pillow pattern.