Or dont be draughty get warm and crafty!
Despite my home having double glazing and new doors it is still subject to draughts. On careful inspection – me sticking my fingers under the kitchen door – I found the draught. So I stuffed a teatowel under it and then set about making a draught excluder.
Not only will it be stylish, it will, hopefully, save me money on heating bills by stopping cold air getting in and hot air getting out.
My only problem is that I don’t have any fabric in my stash that I love enough to put in my kitchen, so I made one for the front door instead. This means I can now go and buy some fabric to make the one for the kitchen door as my New Years Resolution was “Do not buy more fabric until you have finished a project” Though I am now thinking I can make matching oven gloves and aprons so from making one project from stash I now have a possible three from new fabric.
That’s sewing maths for you!
I didn’t take pictures as I went along as it was quite late but here are the simple steps. When I make the kitchen door one I will do a propper tutorial.
The excluder is one long tube so either cut one long rectangle or you can do what I did and piece scraps together.
Measure the width of your door, this is the length of your excluder, add 3cm for seam allowances.
The size of my offcuts dictated the roundness of my tube, I think it worked out well at around 25cm – remember to add 3cm for seam allowances.
I laid out my pieces in the order I wanted and then stitched a straight seam to join the pieces. I pressed open the seam, folded the tube in half right sides together, lengthways and stitched along one short edge and the long edge.
I pressed, trimmed and turned the tube rightside out, I then turned in a small hem on the open end and stitched around the hem.
I chose a button but could not find a ribbon to make a ribbon loop so used cotton embroidery thread to make a sewn one. Here is a clear tutorial on sewing button loops from My Fashionable Life. The only difference on mine was that I started and finished the loop in the same place.
The button loop is on the opposite edge of the tube to the side the button is sewn on, so you fold it over and close it like a little envelope.
I just rolled some left over wadding into a tube and wriggled it into the cover tube. For the kitchen door, which I don’t open as much as the front door and has a bigger gap, I will use an inner bag filled with sand.
I am really pleased with the result, the fabric compliments the colours in the rest of the room and it was a quick, easy project and cheap as chips. The offcuts were £1 for a bag from a curtain shop, the button, thread and wadding were already in my stash, so it probably coming in at under £2. Hopefully it will save me more than that in lost heating!
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