Welcome to this week's episode. I'm going to be showing you how to make a draft stopper.
It's also known as a draft snake or a draft dodger. Most of them are filled with dried
beans or rice. This particular one is filled with cat litter. It's called Yesterday's News
by Purina. It does have a little bit of a flowery scent to it. It holds up really nice
and you don't need that much. It's very cost effective too. It ended up being like 67 cents
per pound after tax and everything. I don't know how much I use for this particular one.
I still have a whole bag filled and you can make tons of these and you can give away to
friends or family members that probably have drafty houses. It keeps the cold air out and
the warm air in and it's great just to as a side project or to use scraps of fabric.
So I guess all you need if you do have scraps of fabric is to go to the market and buy the
filling. So you can use dried beans, rice or Yesterday's News. It's up to you.
So first you're going to have to measure the length of the door or window. We're going
to be putting the draft stopper and I'm using a measuring tape but you can use a yardstick
or ruler if you have one long enough and then you're going to add an inch and a half. Now
the half an inch is for the ease and then the one inch is for the seam allowance. Now
after you've got that completed, my door ends up measuring 31 inches with the half an inch
seam allowance. So the pattern is according to those measurements but you can change it
up however you like as long as the final length is the length of the door plus an inch and
a half. What we're going to do right now is I'm going to show you how to make the shape
so the center panel. So you're going to print out the templates from my website or you can
use any shape or size you want. Keep in mind you are going to be sewing these so you want
to keep the shape basic and simple and not too small because it's going to be hard for
you to sew later on. We're going to use fusible interfacing. There's a smooth side and a side
with glue on it or little dots. It's also shiny. You're going to be using that side
to trace the template on. So we're going to place the template on top of the interfacing
and you're going to trace the shape onto that interfacing. Once you're done with that, you're
going to place your interfacing wherever you want. Make sure that this is going to be
folded in half so you might not end up seeing the full shape just because it's a little
bit big so when you fold it in half you're probably not going to see it. But make sure
when you do this you're going to place it not too close to the edge because when you
start sewing it might get cut off if you place it right at the edge. Try to place it
somewhere in the middle but you can place it staggered like I did just to give it a
little interesting look to it. Then what you're going to do is you're going to pin, you only
need a few pins. Then what you're going to do is you're going to sew along the lines
that we have just traced. As you can see here I've cut out the center probably like
a quarter of an inch away from the stitch line inside because we're going to be turning
this over. If you have, like the heart has a lot of curves, you're going to want to snip
along those curves and at the tips on the bottom and the top just makes it easier to
turn over and when you iron it it's going to be flat and there aren't going to be any
kind of wrinkles or anything. So we're going to put the fabric through and make sure you
get the tip. You can use a point turner or a pencil, just anything that's not that sharp
so you don't poke a hole through your fabric. Then once that is completed you're going
to turn this over to the wrong side and you're going to iron it and that will keep it from
turning over and it really makes a nice clean edge on your shapes. As you can see here on
my star I've already turned it inside out and ironed the back side of this and I sniff
the edges where they were noticeable on the top. Then I grabbed any scrap fabric. If
you have a very lightweight fabric you can put interfacing on the back just to make it
a little bit more stiffer and you place that underneath the fabric. Then you're going to
stitch along the edge securing the bottom fabric to the top. With this star I've made
a zigzag stitch along the edges. You can do whatever you want, be creative. As you can
see on my finished piece that on the hearts I first started to sew an eighth of an inch
along the edge of the heart but I found that to be a little bit dull so what I did is I
changed threads and made it into red and I sewed a wiggly's line along the edges like
three times around just to give it a little bit more pop and it looked a lot better. You
can also do embroidery designs if your machine has fun little different stitches to them
like embroidery stitches. You can use that along the edges. Mine didn't turn out so well
but yours might if you just take the time to do it. Then to go to the other panels to
complete the length of your draft stopper I've added a contrast fabric and what I did
is I sewed right sides together half an inch then I ironed it closed making sure the seam
allowance went toward the contrast fabric on both sides and it top stitched a quarter
of an inch you can do an eighth of an inch however whatever you like the look to be.
Once that's completed and you have the length we're going to fold it in half and you're
going to start pinning. Now you're going to need to leave a four inch opening a little
bit more if you want. Just remember that you will be hand stitching the opening and you
will need to be able to turn this inside out. I put two pins on one side and then four inches
from there about I put another two pins really close together. That indicates when I'm sewing
that I need to stop at those two pins and then continue along the other two pins. It
makes it a lot easier and I don't have to think about it too much or you know forget
while I'm sewing and then have to rip the seams open to get this turned inside out.
Now you're going to finish sewing and sorry you're going to finish pinning these together
and then once this is completed you're going to go to your machine and sew half an inch
around the edge. Keep in mind you will need to leave the four inch open. You're going
to turn it inside out and you're going to fill it. I've made my own funnel since I
don't have one. I made it out of scraps of paper, stapled it and put tape on it. I kept
the bottom of it open enough for whatever I'm filling it with to go down and not get
clogged up and then the top big enough for a handful or a scoop of like a cup to go
through. This work fine for me. You guys can use anything if you have an actual funnel
that would work and here is what I filled it with. Yesterday's news. It is cat litter.
It does have a little bit of flowery scent to it but not overpowering. So this is what
the funnel project is going to look like. You can see where you want to make some changes
or if you want to leave it the way it is. As I told you before some of the shapes aren't
going to be noticeable unless you put them in the center. But I like this staggered look.
I hope you enjoyed this week's program and I'll see you next time.
To make this draft stopper you will need the following. Materials. Fabric. Interfacing.
One of the following. Yesterday's news. Dried beans. Rice. Tools. Sewing machine. Iron.
Tape or ruler. Tailors chalk. Scissors. Straight pins. Needles and thread.
