Baby, it’s cold outside!! Anything we can do to decrease our energy bill right now we will attempt. We build fires, wear layers of clothes, a winter hat, and a heated blanket. The next step was to stop the draft by the doors. We used to use a blanket against the doors to stop the draft, then I bought the draft stoppers that have noodles in a sleeve on either side of the door, but that didn’t work too well. They didn’t slide back and forth easily as your opened and closed the door, and they didn’t close the entire gap between our door and the floor. So, we wanted to create something a little more solid to prevent the cold winter air from coming inside the house.
That’s when we searched Pinterest to find some ideas of how to make the door draft snakes. I knew I could make it–I can follow directions and I had the necessary tools. So, I broke out my grandma’s sewing machine this past weekend, used some fabric and old pillows we had lying around the house to create our own draft stoppers.
Necessary items:
1) Fabric of your choice- I used old fabric that we had around the house (cut into a 42″ long and 18″ wide piece for each snack–the 18″ width was really large in diameter once stuffed, so you can get away with less fabric (about 10-12″) depending on how big/round you want your door draft stopper)–You can use any type of fabric, including fun designed socks, and old sweaters!
2) Stuffing of choice: old pillows (the stuffing inside), rice, sand, etc… (I used 1 bed pillow per)
3) Sewing machine
4) thread
5) Scissors
6) Ruler
Instructions:
1) Cut fabric into desired size- I cut my pieces into 42″ L x 18″ W (we wanted big door draft stoppers (in diameter), but you can make them much smaller if the gap between your door or window isn’t that large).
**Make sure to measure your door and add on a few inches for sewing purposes–our doors are standard 36″, so the 42″ gave me a little room to play
** We were putting our’s between the doors, so I wanted to make it the right size to fit in between the doors. IF you are going to put it on the OUTSIDE of the door (inside your house), you may want to add a few inches so it goes past the door frame.
- Measured to 18″ width
2) Fold fabric in half (pretty/design side together)
3) Sew one end together (width side)
4) Sew other side together (length)
- Fold fabric (pretty side facing each other)– Sew the end and one side together
5) Turn right side out
- Turn right side out
6) Stuff! I packed down the stuffing so it created a draft proof stopper.
- 1 pillow per stopper
- Lots of stuffing
- Rip into pieces to “fluff” up your stuffing
7) Sew open side together. This was a bit tricky, so having a helping hand would be best!
8) Place in the doorway and miss the draft!
- Door draft stopper!
We placed ours in between the doors because we had a large enough space- this helped eliminate the draft. I know it worked, because the glass of our front door is now always fogging up! As a warning- make sure you remember to lift up your feet when you leave the house in the dark mornings…or you’ll trip (I’m speaking from experience).
Let me know how your door draft stoppers turn out!