Mother Hen wants to know what you made this week, and every Thursday from now on.
Last week I tried my hand at improvising a neat little gizmo I saw on TV: the Twin Draft Dodger. The advantage to this draft dodger is that it fits snugly against both sides of the door and slides back and forth with the door when you open and close it.
Both our front and back doors are very drafty, but the back seemed easier to I started there. I wasn’t concerned about making it pretty the first time around, so I used an old towel.
I bought a piece of pipe insulation at Home Depot. I took a look and decided that the size designed to cover 1/2″ pipe was about right for me. This was less than $2, and was my only expense. I cut it in two pieces to fit the width of the doorway.
Then I cut a strip of an old towel wide enough to fit the doorway plus 2 seam allowances. I rolled it around the pipe insulation once and pinned securely. I slid the pipe insulation out and stitched the edges together. This created one tube that was just big enough to allow me to slide in a piece of pipe insulation.
Then I left 1 1/2 inches of space to fit under the door, and repeated on the other side rolling the second one toward the center. I then inserted both tubes and tried it out for size, sliding it under the back door. It was very snug, which is perfect: a snug fit means that it will pull tight against the door, not leaving a gap for drafts to creep though.
Just to make it pretty I stitched the ends shut so you couldn’t see the black pipe insulation peeking out from the faded ratty terry cloth. That was a joke, except that I actually did stitch the ends shut.
All told, it took just under 12″ of fabric, 31″ wide, to make my twin draft dodger. Not counting my first 2 tries, which were both too narrow. My next one will be prettier, I promise.
Related posts:
I love it! I think I’ll make one for my front door. My back door opens outward, so that won’t do, it would fall off.
Does the cat think he should kill it?
Wait, y’all don’t have a tv.
I saw those on TV and figured it would be pretty easy to make one- I’m glad you figured it out.
Granted here in Phoenix it was in the 70′s today, so we don’t really need one.
Mother Hen,
You’re right. We saw it over the holidays at the in-laws.
Stacy,
It’s usually pretty warm here too, but on cool nights it’s nice to keep the cool outside!
Very cool! I’ve been freezing here lately, now if only I could sew…
THANK YOU! You saved me from a few hours’ experimentation on my own -I have an old raggedy Vellux blanket that I meant to recycle into one of those, but I never thought about using the tube insulation. I was thinking of stuffing it with sand or rice or quilt batting –the foam tube would work MUCH better. Thanks again for sharing!
Thanks for participating in Mother Hen’s Homemade Thursday. Come aboard the Ship. I’m handin’ out awards and your name is on th’ list!
http://shipfullofpirates.com/2009/01/28/thank-you-carie/
Thanks for your comment. We have used cloth diapers off and on since Amanda was a baby, so it has been 19 years. We started using them exclusively with Isaac, number 6, and now we are using them for nighttime diaps too, instead of pull-ups.
This draft dodger is great! Jocelyn made one as a craft idea on Growing in Grace, but it is not double like this one. This one looks like it would be great for our drafty old farmhouse front doors. We have these beautiful, oval-beveled glass windows on two of the doors, with beautiful carvings in them, but they are SO old and drafty!
Love the idea for using the pipe insulation. I have been thinking of what else we can use besides the lumpy old socks we have! LOL
THIS would work great! Thank you for sharing the idea!
blessings,
J
I enjoy and welcome so many of the projects shown on this site, but it is so frustrating to not be provided with a “print” link as a way to print just the individual project without wasting all the ink and paper involved when one must also print out all the ads, other superfulous print and even every comment.
Consequently These instructions and patterns are not “free”, in fact they add up to a considerable expense and truly defeat the movement to encourage a greening of the environment.
Dorothy Leo,
Thank you for the input. I have added a Print button that should allow you and others to print only the portions you want, saving ink, paper and energy. I hope you’ll find it useful, and I hope you enjoy some of our other articles and posts.
I was really surprised to see that no one mentioned it keeping out the heat too! im going to make this for that purpose! I live in Tucson, AZ and it gets Hot here. Everytime i walk by the front door I can feel the heat at my feet! so… Thank you for the wonderful instructions Dodger!!
Thank you!! I bought one of these on TV and love it. Wanted to make more myself and you saved me all the “figuring”. Really appreceiate you taking time to share this.