Velvet Draught Excluder French Patio Door Extra Long Soft Draft Stopper 3ft (Navy)

Product Information

Draught excluders are an essential winter craft. Not only are they super useful for preventing cold air from coming in under your doors and windows, no one likes to be sat in a draught, but they are also key in helping to keep your heating bills down. An old duvet is the perfect filling for a DIY door stop or draught excluder since it’s naturally created with insulating properties, yet is still plush and soft. However, using a duvet as filler will require some preparation. The only real catch here is that this type of draught excluder can be more difficult to install over other versions. Installation requires measuring, cutting if necessary and drilling into the door. If you’re not so handy with tools, we’d give this one a miss. Measure Your Door: Measure the width of your door or window. Add a few centimetres to this measurement for seam allowances. Sew The Fabric: With the right sides of the fabric together, sew along the length on both sides, leaving the ends open.

The brilliance of homemade draught excluders is that you can make them as long or as short as you wish. If you have a patio door or large window with a draught you can make one to fit from a pair of old curtains. Perhaps you have sash windows? Thin draught excluders that are fitted across the sash prevent the wind whistling in. If you’re a regular crafter then excess fabric or unwanted fat quarter pieces are often a practical choice for stuffing door draught excluders, since you’ll likely have plenty lying around. However, like many other recycled materials on this list, old towels will require some preparation. In this case, you’ll want to either fold or cut the towels into sizes that fit seamlessly into your draught excluder cover offering an even fit across the entire width of the door. Dried lentils are a great alternative to rice, especially if you or someone you know has some lying around doing nothing.The most common type of draught excluder you’ll see is one that sits across the bottom of a door. Typically, it will be the same length as the door and tube-shaped (hence a draught excluder is also known as a door sausage or door snake). You might also come across them in a rectangular or triangle shape. The best material for a draught excluder is heavy-duty fabrics such as upholstery fabric, canvas, and heavy-weight cotton. In Australia, sand-filled draught excluders are called door snakes. All you need is a soft filling that is compact enough to prevent draughts and you can get started. As we're slowly coming up to the colder months, there is no better time to learn how to make a draught excluder for your home with our free sewing pattern and simple tutorial. READ NEXT: Best oil-filled radiator The best draught excluders you can buy in 2023 1. Fowong Under-Door Draught Excluder: Best overall draught excluder

Sand is highly effective in preventing the draught from entering your home. It gives you all the weight you need without a bumpy feel. It comes out really well and smooth, giving your draught excluder an excellent rectangular shape. 6. Old Duvet The dried beans and lentils are much like rice in the sense that they will last a long time, not decompose and won’t attract any unwanted guests to your home. It is very much a raw material and great for creating a weight within a draught excluder. 13. Bubble WrapThe only downside to this particular draught excluder is that it isn’t machine washable, which can be an issue for an item that will collect dirt from spending all its time on the floor. Nevertheless, treated delicately and dusted on its outside every so often, this shouldn’t be a big problem. There are also draught excluders made from the leg of old jeans, an old pair of tights or old woolly jumper sleeves. They can be stuffed with newspaper, rice, lentils, the pad from an old cushion, polystyrene foam, peanuts, bubble wrap or carrier bags – whatever you have at home. You can also make a laminate fabric one, too, which is easy to clean. Aside from being affordable and readily available, another prime advantage of using old towels as a draught excluder filling is their durability. Towels retain their structure over time, making them a lasting solution to draft issues. Meanwhile, their dense fabric ensures a good weight, allowing the excluder to stay firmly in place. Decor style – If the draught excluder will be sitting in a prominent place such as a living room, consider a style that matches with your existing decor. This will see it blend in with the surroundings and follow through with the overall aesthetic of your home. Alternatively, you might be after something that stands out. A bright colour among darks, or one of the many adorable character and animal-style excluders can act as a statement piece in your home. One advantage of using bubble wrap is that the material is lightweight, which can make the draught excluder easy to move or adjust as needed. Of course, if you’d like to add a weight, you can do so with rice or sand.

To turn your fabric remnants into draught excluder filling, simply cut the pieces down into strips or manageable chunks. This ensures that when you fill your draught excluder, the stuffing is distributed evenly. Its sponge cotton rolls can be trimmed to better fit the length of your door, after which the draught excluder can be attached to the bottom of the door, where it’s secured by elastic, hook and loop tape. Conveniently, the external material is machine washable.Once you’ve made one and mastered how to do it, you’ll be able to sew them for all the rooms in your home in no time, improving insulation and making a much more comfortable, cosy place for you and your family. Another household staple that’s affordable, readily available and works well as a stuffing for a DIY draught excluder is rice, and unlike old clothes, rice needs no preparation. Making a draught excluder is similar to making a door stop, albeit the pattern is rectangular since it’s designed to cover the width of your door. You’ll want to cut or tear the duvet into strips or sections that can fit comfortably inside your draught excluder cover. It’s therefore advisable not to use a door stop or draught excluder filled with an old duvet on a front door, since if this material gets wet, mould or mildew could build up inside. 7. Old Towels

Have you still got questions about the best stuffing for draught excluders? Here are some of the most frequently asked questions people have. How to Weight Down a Draught Excluder Gather Your Materials: You’ll need fabric (preferably heavy-duty or upholstery type), filling (e.g., polyester stuffing, rice, or sand), needle, thread, and scissors.The best way to weigh down a draft excluder is by opening a small section of the excluder’s seam, removing some of the filling (where required), and adding a heavier material such as rice, sand or small pebbles. Key details – Material: Polyester; Filling: Not specified; Dimensions: 850 x 200mm; Machine Washable: No One of the more cost-effective options on the list, this door brush draught excluder is particularly common and useful for fixing up draughty external doors. The bristles can be cut to fit against the doorframe or floor, allowing it to sweep gently when opened, without dragging across the floor.