Pregnancy pillow pattern story
After multiple designs of a pregnancy pillow pattern, I have finally finished it once and for all. Join me as I tell you how I came to design my superb pregnancy pillow pattern.
If you would like to skip my story and go directly to the pattern, go ahead and click here.
How do you get comfortable when you are pregnant? I've been pregnant multiple times and until I made a pregnancy pillow, I suffered at the end of each pregnancy.
When I was pregnant with my latest baby (Claire), I was very uncomfortable. I mean, uncomfortable doesn't even describe how I felt. My back ached, my belly felt like it was chained to the floor, my pelvis felt like it was hit with a hammer, my feet were swollen, I had wicked heartburn and every other type of pregnancy discomfort that you could imagine. I was sleeping with 4 different pillows and spent unrealistic sleeping time trying to make my pillows conform to my body. I had seen pregnancy pillows that were for sale on amazon, and even researched which ones were the most popular and why. I just couldn't spend $80 on a pregnancy pillow. I researched all over the place to see if I could find a sewing pattern that was similar to the shape that I wanted, but I couldn't find anything. Although I was exhausted and felt as big as a house, I decided to design a sewing pattern for myself.
I had multiple people from all over the world tell me how thankful that they were to have used my pregnancy pillow pattern. There were cancer patients who couldn't get comfortable, pregnant moms who were past their due dates with twins, mothers from countries where they couldn't order a pregnancy pillow, mothers who's budgets were tight and yet were looking for ANYTHING to help ease the discomforts of pregnancy, and so much more.
Sales were good, reviews were great, but a very unexpected thing happened. After a few months of selling the pregnancy pillow sewing pattern, I was contacted from a large company who designed a popular pregnancy pillow. They had a patent on the shape that I had used to make the sewing pattern and demanded that I stop selling it. So I stopped. I contacted an attorney to see if the patent was legitimate and what I could do. It was legitimate...and unless I re-designed the pattern, I would need to stop selling it. The attorney told me that if I made the pillow into two pieces, that it would be enough.
I was sad. Very said. I put it in my 'box of things to do' and set it aside. Every week I had at least 4 people contact me to ask if I was going to make another pattern and when. I was so discouraged that I couldn't look at it.
One day I had a woman write to me. She told me about how she desperately needed the pregnancy pillow pattern for her daughter who was in a country where they couldn't order a pillow. I was so moved by her story that I sent her the pattern. She wrote to me almost weekly after that. She told me about how she made a pillow from the pregnancy pillow pattern for her daughter. Then she made one for a family member and friend who had cancer. They were so uncomfortable and needed something. She was so kind and spent her time willingly to help them.
It was at that point that I realized that I HAD to re-design the pregnancy pillow. I wasn't pregnant anymore, but had put a lot of thought to what the pillow needed to be. I had given my pregnancy pillow to a friend and I was able to ask her opion of my ideas. I had multiple testimony emails from customers which had comments and ideas, so I read each one and dreamed up a new design.
This was the first design that I thought up. Very similar to the end product, except the belly support was built into the pillow. I decided against having the belly support being stationary because everyone is different. Every woman needs to put the belly support where she wants it, if she wants it at all.
The thing about comfort when you are pregnant, is that you are rarely comfortable. If you are comfortable today by doing a certain thing, tomorrow will be completely different. I knew that the belly support would have to be removable for this very reason, but didn't exactly know how to remove it from the pillow. I thought about ties, snaps, buttons, or a funny shaped cover.
The next thing that I got hung up on was the shape of the pregnancy pillow itself. I loved the shape of the pillow that I had made with my original pregnancy pillow pattern, and I simply didn't want to change it. How and why would I split it into two pieces?
I had to pray about it. A.L.O.T. That was when I finally asked my husband for advice. This can be a dangerous en devour. Ha! He is such a smart, artistic, crafty and handy person that it makes me feel inferior sometimes. However, since I knew that there were uncomfortable moms out there who needed the pattern, I asked him. He had fantastic ideas and helped me draw up a new design. Some of his advice I took and some of it evolved into the current design. In fact, the welt pocket on the back that allows the cover to be used to perfectly fit either pillow alone was an idea that evolved from his. What a guy. :)
I already had a nursing pillow pattern on my site, so one day when I was looking at it, it hit me: I need to make this pregnancy pillow pattern be versatile enough that it could have a removable nursing pillow! From there, the designing started to take shape. After months of thoughts, ideas, trials and disasters, I finally have my pregnancy pillow pattern!
The removable nursing pillow is a fantastic fit on virtually any body. The excess on the cover of the pregnancy pillow tucks into the welt pocket so that you can use the cover on the nursing pillow alone! However, I know that many moms want to make a separate cover to match their nursery, so I also included directions and pattern on how to make a nursing pillow cover separately.
The covers are easy to remove and put on, there aren't any zippers to worry about and every step has at least one real life image. Super easy for beginners!
Get comfortable by making your own pregnancy pillow. You'll love it. Anyone can make one and you'll have a nursing pillow to help you get comfortable when you are nursing your baby later on!