How to Sew a Cat Draft Stopper
Gaps below doors and between window frames let cold air into your home, raising heating costs. You can stop the cold air, and the wasted money, with a draft blocker. Take it a step further by making this practical item as cute as it is useful. Cats can warm your lap, and a draft blocker made to resemble a cat can warm the room. While you can knit one, using a pattern from Lion brand yarn or Simplicity, a sewn version with a removable cover makes cleanup easier.
Things You'll Need
- 1 Piece of tightly woven fabric, such as chintz, 7 inches by 40 inches
- Straight pins, at least 8
- Thread matching the fabric
- Funnel
- 1 bag rice
- Fabric glue or seam sealer
- 1 piece black fleece, 9 by 43 inches
- Black thread
- Black yarn or heavy cord, about 1 foot
- Large safety pin
- Pencil
- Cardstock or tag board, scraps up to several inches
- Scissors
- Chalk
- Scraps of black fleece
- Fabric paint in white, yellow, black and pink
- Embroidery floss, white, yellow and pink (optional)
- Embroidery needle (optional)
Instructions
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1
Fold the tightly woven fabric in half, lengthwise, and pin it in place. Securely stitch it along the long side, using the matching thread. Remove the pins.
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2
Gather one end of the folded fabric, and securely hand-stitch it with the matching thread.
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3
Pour rice into the sewn tube, using a funnel, until it is tightly packed. While holding the tube upright, gather and stitch the open end.
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4
Stabilize the gathered ends and the long side seam with fabric glue, and set the tube aside to dry.
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5
Fold down an inch on one short end of the black fleece, wrong sides together, and stitch it down, leaving the ends open. This is the pocket through which you will thread the tie cord.
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6
Tie the yarn or cord to a large safety pin and work it through the stitched pocket, leaving loose cord at each end. Sew two or three short stitches through the pocket and the cord at one point, so that the cord can't be pulled completely out of the fabric.
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7
Fold the black fleece in half, lengthwise, right sides in, and pin it in place. Stitch the long sides together securely with black thread. Remove all pins.
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8
Gather the opposite end of the fleece tube and securely stitch it closed. Turn the fleece tube right side out.
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9
Sketch a simple paw shape onto the cardstock or tag board. Also sketch a simple cat's ear shape, like a triangle. Cut them out.
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10
Trace your paw template eight times onto the wrong side of black fleece, using chalk. Trace the ear template four times. Cut them out.
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11
Pair up the templates, wrong sides together, so that you have four pairs of paw shapes and two pairs of ear shapes in black fleece. Glue the wrong sides together with fabric glue, and let them dry.
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12
Insert the rice-filled tube into the fleece tube, and tie a bow with the yarn or cord.
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13
Hand-stitch the ears to the top of the end of the fleece tube opposite the tied opening; the two layers and fabric glue should make them stiff enough to stand up.
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14
Hand-stitch two of the feet to the bottom of the tube, about four inches down from the end; hand-stitch the other two feet to the bottom of the tube near the tied end.
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15
Cut a narrow scrap of black fleece, in the length you prefer for a "tail." Roll the scrap lengthwise and fix the edge with fabric glue. When it is dry, stitch it to the top of the tied end.
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16
Paint eyes, nose and whiskers on the sewn end of the tube, below the ears. The nose is an upside-down pink triangle, and the eyes are yellow ovals with black slits for irises.
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17
Put your lucky black cat in front of a drafty door to stop the heat loss.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Adjust the fabric length if your door has different dimensions than three feet of width.
The inner, rice-filled tube can be made of any color fabric, as it will not be seen.
If you prefer to embroider the cat's face, rather than painting it on, sketch the features with chalk, then remove the rice-filled tube and outline the eyes, nose and whiskers with the appropriate colors of embroidery floss.
Using rice makes the draft blocker much heavier, and the double casing prevents moisture absorption. You might also stuff the inside fabric tube with sand or unscented cat litter.
Before washing the outer covering, check the type of fabric glue and paint that you used. Many of these products are washable.
If you use fleece or another looser-weave cloth for the inner casing, you may find it difficult to contain finely grained filling like rice, sand or litter; a tightly woven fabric, like cotton chintz, will hold these fillings more securely. Failing to glue the seam may also lead to leaks.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit open door 3 image by amlet from Fotolia.com
