Winter Crafts: Easy Homemade Heat Saving Door Stops

If you have a cold draft coming in from under your door, you can stop it dead in its track with a homemade door stop. Below are some easy homemade ideas on how you can stop that draft and save on your heating bill. For some of these draft stoppers, you don't even have to know how to sew!

To fill your door draft stoppers, you will need a funnel with a large hole. The easiest way to make a funnel is to cut the bottom out of a plastic cup or out of a small plastic container like a yogurt container. Then put the cut end into the tube and just pour in your filling!

You will also need filling for these draft stoppers. You can use uncooked rice, popcorn kernels, dry beans or whatever you have available. Just know that it can take quite a bit of filling to make a door stop, so buy whatever is cheaper by the pound.

When your door draft stoppers are complete, lay them on the floor in front of your door (on the inside of your home) and let them do their job. Do not let them get wet. You can also lay them on your window sill to keep the draft from getting in.

Tube Sock Door Stop

A tube sock door stop is very easy to make. And it's a good way to recycle a lone sock that has lost its mate. It's also a good way to put a sock with a hole in it to good use. If there is a hole in the sock, stitch it up. You do not have to get fancy with the stitching. Just close the hole any way you can. Then fill the sock with your filling and close the top of the sock by either stitching it closed or by tying it off with cord. It might take several socks to cover the draft under the door, but it should be easy to find enough socks to do the job.

Long Sleeve Door Stop

If you have some long sleeved shirts that are too stained or too old ratty to donate, cut off the sleeves and turn the sleeves into door stops. You can tie off the ends to close the openings, or you can stitch them closed. If the shirt happened to have buttons, you can cut the buttons off and sew them on to the door stop as decorations.

DIY Door Stop

If you want to make a door stop from scratch and do it yourself, simply decide how long and thick you want your tube and make it using any fabric you have. You can piece together fabric scraps to make a crazy quilt type door stop, or you can buy a yard of fabric and use that. You can also make door stops with fun fabrics like faux fur, fleece, or flannel.

Knitted or Crocheted Door Stop

If you know how to knit or crochet, you can make a long tube and use it for a door stop. Just be sure you knit or crochet using a very tight stitch so the filling will not fall through the holes. If your stitches are too open, you can always use a knitted or crocheted tube as the decorative part of the door stop and line it with fabric to hold the filling in the tube.

All door stops can be decorated any way you like. You can add facial features using buttons or felt. You can make them hairy by gluing on pieces of yarn. You can even add cloth legs to make a critter. Just have fun with it!