How to Make a Double-Sided Door Draft Stopper

The last week has been chilly. I’m sorry. It’s been COLD! The snow came in and so did the wind.  I’ve been working on winterizing my home for the last couple of weeks.  To really know if you’re doing things right, the cold comes and lets you know that there is still air sneaking in the house.  So, as my last step for keeping the house warm, I made these Double-Sided Door Draft Stoppers.  Love them!  They really keep the cold air out and your warm air inside.  Plus, you can use it during the summer to keep the cool air inside of your home.  It’s not that difficult to make.  The instructions, along with pics, are below.  If you’re looking for other tips that I use for keeping the house warm, check out my post How We Stay Warm and Lower Our Electric Bill.

Materials Needed:

• fabric
• thread
• pipe covers

Instructions:

Measure the length of the door at the bottom.  Open door and measure the width of the inside.  My door measures 32 inches and the inside measures 2 inches.  I am going to cut the fabric 36 inches long, allowing for 4 extra inches of fabric for seams.  Try to select fabric that is more resistant to outside weather when using on doors that face the outside.

Cut the fabric the required length. (36 inches for my door)

Cut pipe cover a little shorter (about an inch shorter) than door so that it will fit snugly when opening and closing.  You can buy the pipe covers from Walmart.  They were priced $2.97 for 3 in a bag.  They are 3/4 inches wide.   An easy way to find out exactly how much material you will need is to insert the pipe cover in the material.  I’m using the fold of the material.  That’s one less side to sew.

Pin the area of the enclosed pipe cover.  Then, measure off for the amount of the inside door measurements, which was 2 inches for my door.

Pin the 2 inch width from the pipe cover all the way down. Measure the width of the space where you removed the pipe cover.  It measured 3 inches.  I know that I will need an additional 3 inches on the opposite side to fit the other pipe cover.  A little bit of adding; 3 in + 3in + 2 in = 8in.  I am going to allow for an additional 1 inch for seam.  So, the entire width of the fabric will be 9 inches.  Ta-Da!  My fabric is 36in x 9in.

Sew around the bottom and side (or sides if you do not have a fold).  Leave one of the 9in lengths open for inserting pipe covers.

I pressed down the seam on the side so it could lay flat. The second pic may seem like a repeat.  I inserted the pipe cover again and pinned down.  You can measure off the 3in from before and just sew it.  I wanted to make sure of the fit, so I pinned again.

I removed pipe cover and sewed down.  Notice, how I left about an inch of material where I did not sew completely all the way down.  I did this so that the material will fit nicely in the side of the door.  Then, I measured the other 3in width on the opposite side from the end and sewed down.  That left 2 inches in the middle for sliding under the door.

At the opening (notice the distance where I stopped the seam), I pressed down the edge.

I sewed a double seam to lock the pipe covers in the fabric.  The other picture shows the amount of spacing at the bottom.  If you don’t want to sew the edges of the open part together, you could use a zipper or Velcro to be able to remove and wash material when needed.  There you have it….a nice stopper to stop the wind from invading your home.

Have you made one of these for the winter?