Draft Stopper.
With winter quickly approaching I shudder in remembrance of the icy drafts coming from beneath my doors. A lot of resources and money are wasted due to the extra heat needed to combat these drafts and the extra money you have to spend to fuel the furnace. People have been using door snakes for years. Maybe you even have one. I find them annoying because you always have to put them back in there place. I am lazy, I know. A quick and easy fix to this problem is using a twin draft stopper. Now, you could pay $19.99 and order the twin draft guard, but that would not be very thrifty. And these are so simple to make!The materials:
All it took was a pair of my daughter's recently purged jeans and two foam pipe wraps from the hardware store. These come in different diameters and are dirt cheap. 1/2 inch should be sufficient to cover most gaps.
- Cut your foam tubes to 1 1/2 to 2 inches shorter than the width of the door you are covering.
- Cut your jeans in half and trim to slightly longer than the tubes. I got lucky, these were already nearly the length I needed.
- Turn inside out and sew bottom hem shut.
- Slip tubes inside pant leg and slide under the door so that one tube is on each side of door.
- Pull fabric taught so tubes are snug against the door.
- Pin along edge of tube on cut side and sew a straight seam along pins.
- Trim excess fabric off.
- Turn right side out, insert tubes and fold over open end to be flush with tubes.
- Pin hem and sew edge, leaving the end open.
- Reinsert tubes and slide under door with open end towards door frame.
- Make sure door can open and close freely.
- Never bend down to put the door snake back in its place again!
The finished product will move with the door. There is no need to constantly be putting it back in its place. Just slide it on and forget about it. I like to leave one end open so the tubes can be removed and the cover washed when needed. You could certainly add Velcro or sew it shut if preferred. These work great for drafty windows, too!
The side by side comparison says it all. Save your money and your sanity with a simple twin draft stopper.
The side by side comparison says it all. Save your money and your sanity with a simple twin draft stopper.
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6 comments:
Winter quickly approaching? It's not even fall yet! Even though it's still summer, I really do need one of these twin draft guards for my daughter's door. Her door was at least four inches from the floor, so my husband added a piece of wood to the bottom. We STILL need to stuff a rolled-up blanket at the bottom to keep the light out and it is a pain. (Plus, it looks bad.) I am going to show this post to my husband. I think we have all the materials at home. We could even stuff the two sides with something we find around the house (maybe more fabric?).
Thank you so much for this tip! And thanks for joining us for Thrifty Green Thursday!
What a creative solution! I don't own a sewing machine--but so many Thrifty Green Thursday tips involve sewing that I might have to break down and search for a used one. Thanks for joining us this week!
Love it. Great tutorial for making it, too. Thanks!
Update! After reading this excellent tip, I decided to make a twin draft guard for my daughter's room. I just folded the blanket we were using so it fit exactly under the door. Then I laid the blanket under the door, rolled up each side, and safety-pinned each corner. It works! It looks much better than it did when we just crumpled the blanket under the door. It stays put and the door opens just fine. (We have wood floors. It probably wouldn't work for carpeted floors.)
So, I didn't make a REAL twin draft guard like you did, but since I just needed it to block light (not drafts), it did the trick. THANK YOU!
rebecca - We have doors like that in our house, too. The floors used to be covered in carpet and I think they trimmed the bottom off the doors to clear it. We have wood floors now, so there is a big gap between the two. I have seen these work on carpet floors as well. Good for you for coming up with a quick solution.
joy - You don't really need a sewing machine for this. Do like Rebecca and just pin it. Or, use a needle and thread and hand sew a few stitches to hold the fabric in place. I think you could even use fabric glue or velcro and get the same effect.
emily - thanks for stopping by!
Good one! I just made one of these, and it's great. I reused some styrofoam we got in an old package, so I didn't have to buy anything new.
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