DIY Draft Stoppers

So with the cold weather already settling in here, I have decided to weather-proof our house a little earlier this year.  Last year we were blind sided by the ridiculous cost of our oil heating and so I have gone to some lengths to cut down on heating/energy losses.  Besides shrink wrapping all the windows in the house, several of our doors are bit draft.  Below are how I turned two kink pillow protectors, ticking fabric, and lots of rice into draft stoppers.

Decide how tall and wide you would like to make the stoppers.  I chose 4 inches by 36 inches for mine.  I bough two king pillow case protectors to keep the filler from getting wet or moldy. 

 First thing to do is cut the zipper out of the pillow cover, this will cut down the size by about one inch total after you sew up the filler, so just keep that in mind.  I measure about 4 inches in height and then cut about 1/4 inch away from this line. 

Next sew along the line you trace, I went over the line once and then outside the line once to make a nice  strong seam.  If you cut it along either the top or bottom edge, one of the ends will already be sewn up from the original pillow seams.

This next part ended up being a two person job.  I had several old bags of rice hanging around and figured they would be decent filler.  I rolled the cover inside out and held it open as my husband kindly helped pour it in.  I left 2-3 inches at the top unfilled so that I wouldn't have any trouble sewing it up.  Since this is only the waterproof cover it's ok to just sew it closed without folding it in.

I went over this seam twice as well, just like along the length of the cover.

I chose some ticking fabric to keep it simple and make sure everything lined up well.  I marked where 8 inches would reach after leaving 1/4 inch at the bottom edge (where my hand it).  Cut 1/4 inch away from this line further out.  The stripes on the fabric make this extraordinarily simple.  

Fold with back of fabric facing out and line up your start and end marks.  Pin and sew down the line.  I went over the line twice to make the seam sturdy. 

Don't forget to sew up one of the edges.  Here is what it looks like filled with the piece already filled with rice.  By the way getting the washable cover over the already filled bag, I found this was also a two person job to make it fit in the ticking cover more efficiently.

Now for the unsightly unfinished edge.  You can hem the edged and make the markings for your snaps.  

Sew the snaps onto the outside of the cover but do not sew the sides together.  Using the ticking stripes to help you match up their placement.

Once that is done, fold the fabric in so the snaps match up and click them together.

And that's it, you're done!  By far the most time consuming step was sewing the snaps in.  I'll post an update of an easier way to fasten the ends but still allow the fabric to be removed and washed as necessary!