Draft Stopper

Ok I was just going to hop on here real quick and share my latest project (which even though it is warmer now will help keep it cooler in my house in the summer) of a DIY/recycle/use what you have door draft stopper. But then I get on (after a couple days of being sick and/or taking care of a sick kiddo) and see that I was featured yesterday on the Better After blog! Woohoo! Thanks so much!

Ok so now that I am all done being giddy (well not quite- I'll probably dance around for awhile) I'll show you my project.
You've all seen the commercials for those draft stoppers that move with the door right? Well I wanted one for both my front and back doors because I have a toddler who would probably run off with a draft stopper that wasn't attached haha! But I didn't really want to pay for one, let alone two. So I was so happy when this idea popped into my head: make it out of toilet paper rolls!

Here is the step by step to use what you have on hand, recycle AND get a great way to reduce cold drafts!

Supplies:

Paper towel or toilet paper rolls, tape measure, scissors, duct tape, fabric, batting.

Start putting together your paper towel rolls to form one long tube. The picture below shows how I did this on the first tube (you need two tubes per door)- I inserted one into the other. I would not recommend doing this on yours though- I did it differently on the second tube.

Here is how I did it on the second tube. It came out easier, stronger and the duct tape laid smooth over the joint unlike the ones I made where I inserted the ends into each other.

I put one end in the center of the duct tape then laid the second tube right up next to it and pressed it into the duct tape also.

Then just roll the two tubes up in the duct tape until you get all the way around. Continue until you have one long tube you know is longer than the width of your door.

Then go measure your door width and mark that measurement on your tube. Next we are going to cut our tube to that exact length.

I couldn't find my box cutter and all I had were scissors...which makes it hard to cut tubes. So I just cut a few slits like this into the tube down to the line. Then folded each flap back a bit and cut from slit to slit. It made it MUCH easier to cut! Repeat this for the second tube.

After that I stuffed my tubes with batting (no pictures sorry)- use a yardstick or a stick from your yard (ha. ha.) to shove the batting down the full length of the tube. Repeat for the 2nd tube.

Next I laid out my fabric and rolled one tube in it and pinned it down. I didn't fold the raw edge under then pin but you can if you want :) I slid the tube out and sewed the seam.

After leaving a little bit of fabric to go under the door I did the same thing with the second tube. Leaving me with this.

Then I just tucked the loose ends into the tubes and slid the whole thing under my door and closed the door...All DONE! :) Easy and practically free!



I'm linking up to The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday Linky Party!

Decided to enter this into the $5 challenge at Living With Lindsay since I had everything on hand already & the toilet paper rolls are recycled so the cost for this project to keep out the spring breezes: $0!