How to Make a Draft Stopper for Doors

Drafts are never welcome through a door, but they can be an opportunity to make a draft stopper to match your décor and personality. This can be one of the easiest projects you'll ever make---a draft stopper doesn't have to be much more than a stuffed tube that is long and wide enough to cover the gap under the door. If you have rags, old clothes or plastic bags that you haven't thrown out yet, this is your chance to make an environmentally friendly draft stopper that will reduce the energy needed to heat the room and reuse old items as well.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Measuring tape
• Fabric
• Thread and needle
• Filling material
• ½ cup pebbles or sand
• 2 small bags
• Optional:
• Sewing machine
• Plastic eyes ("googly eyes")
• Yarn
• Beads
• Fabric patches

1. Measure the length of the bottom of the door and the width of the gap between the door and the floor.

2. Choose a piece of fabric the same length and twice as wide, plus half an inch all around. On the "wrong" side of the fabric, mark the measurements as an outline, then mark a second line, half an inch bigger, around the first. A piece of fabric 7 inches by 37 inches will be large enough for a 36-inch-wide door.

3. Cut along the outer rectangle you marked.

4. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, wrong side out.

5. Sew along the length and one short side of the rectangle following the line you marked for the smaller rectangle. Leave one end open for stuffing. If you use a sewing machine you could do this step much faster, but sewing by hand is fine, too.

6. Turn the tube right side out.

7. Stuff the tube with store-bought polyester filling, rags, old clothes, or plastic bags. If it is too light and the finished draft stopper might move out of place, put some pebbles or sand in a small bag at each end of the tube.

8. Sew the open end.

9. Decorate the draft stopper any way you'd like. You can embroider names or messages on it, glue plastic eyes and make a face so the tube looks like a snake or a worm, tie it with a piece of yarn at the ends like a piece of candy, cover it with beads or patches, etc.

Tips & Warnings

• You might find it easier to mark and cut the fabric after you fold it in half. You can make the cover tube from two or more pieces of fabric sewn together to make a rectangle the size you need, use old socks or tights with the toe-end cut off, or the sleeves of shirts or sweaters. Other materials, like gravel or cat box litter, may work well to add weight to the draft stopper. Until you finish making the draft stopper, you can roll a towel or a blanket as a temporary solution.

References

• Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures; Amanda Blake Soule; 2009
• Crafts and Hobbies: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creative Skills; Reader's Digest; 1981
• Frugal Village

Resources

• The Daily Green
• Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
• Craftzine