Wool Pillows

Has anyone made bed pillows from their own wool? I have 8 new fleeces to use and plan on skirting, washing, and using my drum carder.
Do I make a long row of bats and roll them up? Or just layer the bats? Do I felt them at all? How much wool should I use per pillow?  

I'm planning to do the same thing, but I only have hand cards, so I'll just be carding it as loose and fluffy as possible and see how it goes.

I don't have enough body hair to make pillows from my own wool, but sheep's wool pillows sound interesting! I'd be concerned that they would felt over time and not be fluffy any more, though.

In northern Germany where we are surrounded by dikes covered with grazing sheep. They are locally often called Pullover Pigs or Pillow Pigs which lets already stipulate that the wool is used for pillow stuffing.

In the early days it was quite common but after cheaper polyester filling became available wool went out of fashion.

Wool pillows are pretty heavy and need to be stuffed well.
Beside the weight they are way more absorbing (sweat) and have a very positive temperature regulating effect.

But I remember when Grandma washed her pillows its quite a procedure.
Take the wool out, wash it and dry it by regularly, pulling it apart during drying until you have the right fluffiness again.
The pillow needs to be proper and tight stuffed which is important.

At the begin wool pillows are a bit smelling which disappears over the time but what's the matter if you get a good sleep. (Just don't count the sheep, smell them until you drop into dreams)

I tried some wool batts for pillows and found that they compress too much for comfortable head pillows. I prefer natural latex "shreds" for that use. But we have chair seats and backs made from felted wool batts that are perfect for that purpose. The chairs have a woven rope seat and back on a metal frame, with wood arms and legs. The seats are about 4" thick and the backs about 1-1/2" and covered with denim fabric or crocheted wool rug yarn. BTW, I don't tolerate commercial foam pillows as they off-gas something toxic that makes me feel sick.

Welcome to Permies!

In our PEP program, we have a "Badge Bit (BB)" on pillow making. It links to some tutorials that might be useful. -> Make two pillows for sleeping

I have definitely seen it done, in my opinion I would think a down type breed like Dorset or maybe Cheviot would do best as these are naturally very lofty springy fibers. Are you planning to make the filling removable? I would suggest it so that should the wool compress or felt, you can pull it out to re fluff. And also, as wool is quite absorbent, so you can wash it again as needed. If you do add buttons or a zipper to the pillow to make the filling removable I would actually test it without even carding the fiber, as it will retain the most air and 'loft' that way. Just be sure to scour well and then fluff apart with your hands.

There's more than one way to use wool for filling, for sure!

Wool pillows - lots of options.

I like to use carded wool so it isn't lumpy.  The trick is to stop the filling from moving around inside with use.  All filling compresses with use, so over-stuffing the pillow isn't a bad thing - and then stuffing it some more. Or you can tuff it (like quilting) to stop it from moving around.  Depends on what you want to use the pillow for (couch pillow, bed pillow, ?).