Practical sewing

A new dressmaking project is on hold for a bit, while I attend to practical matters. As part of a New Year's resolution to get healthier, I have started doing online yoga classes, and a side effect of this has been the discovery that my living room is really, really cold at floor level. The cause wasn't hard to find; it turns out there is a good 1/2" gap at the bottom of the door into the kitchen, and the door into the hall isn't much better.

So, I’m making draught excluders. As with dressmaking, one big advantage of made over bought is that they can be made to measure. Another plus is that not only has this been a 'zero-buy' project, it has also used up a lot of waste fabric.

All this has now gone

Around the start of the first lockdown (March 2020, for those who have lost count), for a reason which I can't now remember, I started saving all my fabric scraps in a big bag. Possibly I was planning to make a Closet Core Patterns pouf - although given that I've already got two inherited poufs, this seems a bit unnecessary. Anyway, almost two years' worth of sewing scraps, plus any toiles which I no longer needed, went in there.

Because the door into the kitchen is a double door, I made two separate excluders so that I didn't have to move the whole thing when opening one door. (The doors open into the kitchen, and the reality is that I've quickly got used to just stepping over the excluder rather than moving it every time.) The basic excluders were made from leftover curtain lining; I made mine 8cm/3⅛" thick. The shape is shown below. I prefer the square shape to a simple tube with tapered ends, because it can be wedged in place and no draughts can sneak through the gaps at each end.

Shown without seam allowances (click to enlarge)

I folded the cut-out shape along the green diagonal line, right sides together, and sewed 'a' to 'a'. Next I sewed 'b' to 'b' and 'c' to 'c', and part way (less than halfway) along 'd' to 'd'. I repeated all this at the other end, and turned the excluder right way out through the gap in the centre of 'd'.

Then it was time to start stuffing. Because the draught excluders have corners, and because I am fussy, I decided to chop my scraps up a bit rather than just push them in. Cue an evening with wine, a favourite film on the laptop (seen here balanced on one of my poufs), and my fabric scissors.

Yes, Friday nights at Tulip Mansions really are this wild!

Once stuffed, I sewed up the openings.

The (almost) completed articles

These would be perfectly functional as they are, but I had already decided to make separate covers which can be replaced/washed as necessary. In my stash I had a length of furnishing velvet which had come in the same lot of 'mixed textiles' as my pink Viyella. Judging from the colours, it was the same era as the Viyella, as well! I actually quite liked the jaunty stripes, but couldn't imagine making anything from it - plus it was only a short piece. There was just enough to cover the three excluders (the one for the hall door isn't quite finished), with the scraps going into the bag for a future project!

The fabric actually goes with the carpet and wood

Finally, I'm aware that this blog post might not be what some readers were expecting. All last week on Instagram there was a collaboration between SewOver50 and Simplicity McCalls UK, and one of the featured sewists was - me! Specifically, me in the Holly dress, which was based on Butterick 5748. This came as a complete surprise, and I was thrilled, and very flattered (and a teensy bit embarrassed, as I'm quite a private person IRL!). But for anyone coming to my blog for more vintage dressmaking then I realise that draught excluders, even ones made from vintage fabric, may be a bit of a disappointment. Normal service will be resumed next week, but I hope that this post goes to show that being able to sew has more benefits than just making pretty dresses; fun though that undoubtedly is. I now have a warmer living room, am saving on heating, and can do my yoga without the risk of frostbite; and all it cost me was a few hours of my sewing time - result!.