Ten minute no-sew draft excluder January 6, 2017 23:00 1 Comment
It is so cold. Our house feels like a drafty sieve. The back door in particular has huge gaps round it letting the frosty air in. I needed an immediate solution today, so I reactivated this super quick, no-sew tutorial for a draft excluding door sausage made from an old pair of jeans. I'm particularly pleased because I've both saved the jeans from landfill and I haven't added to the number of things we own as it's totally upcycled from stuff in the house.
You will need
- A pair of trousers
- Good scissors
- Something to stuff the door sausage with. I used the wool wadding that I kept from Hello Fresh boxes but I could have used lone socks, or a scratty pillow or anything soft that can be chopped up easily.
Take one pair of trousers and cut off both the legs. You can cut up the top of the trousers to make wadding, or just use as cut-offs if you can remember what it's like to be warm.
Set one leg aside, and cut the other lengthwise so it's a long, wide strip of fabric.
Make a little snip in the denim of one leg with your scissors about 2cm from the edge of the fabric
Grab the fabric each side of the snip - and rip! The fabric will tear along the grain in a nice straight line and you'll end up with a 2cm wide strip of fabric. Repeat two more times so you end up with two more strips. These second two strips will have a nicely frayed, distressed edge, so there's no need to hem or finish them.
.
Take the remaining trouser leg and tie one end closed with a strip of denim
Stuff plenty of wadding into the trouser leg, until it's pretty firm, but not stiff or solid
Then use the other strip to tie up the open end and squish the sausage into shape.
Done!
I love using up old jeans for things, denim is so nice to work with. Have you got any great jeans recycling ideas or projects to share? Let us know in the commments
Comments
Tonnae on April 12, 2021 18:37
Thank you for this awesome idea! I love it! I have 2 broken sewing machines, lots of old denim looking to be repurposed, and a 2 inch gap under my apartment door. This project will be perfect! :-)