Iron Craft Week Two

This week's challenge for Iron Craft was to make a "draft dodger" or "door snake." Having been raised in Texas and having lived in Tampa, I had never heard of such a thing. Even when I went to school in Indiana, I never came across such an item.


For the uninitiated, a door snake is something that is placed in front of a window or door that blocks the cold air from entering (or the cold air from the air conditioning from escaping). I had a roommate in college that would do the same thing with his sweatpants. In our case, it was a signal for me that I would probably be sleeping in the dormitory lounge or with a friend for the evening.


After doing some research, it appears that this would be an easy project for most people. You simply take a piece of fabric 4 " tall by the size of the opening you want to cover (my door is 31" wide), and add 1.5 inches for seam allowances and turn downs. This would make my piece of fabric 4" by 32.5". Fold in half on the long side, with right sides together and sew on the three open sides leaving a seam allowance of .5" to 1". Turn out the tube through the opening so the right side of the fabric is showing. You leave a small gap in order to pour in your filling material (usually beans, rice, cat litter, etc.). Once filled, you hand stitch the opening shut, decorate the outside as you please and Voila--you have a door snake.

The only problem for me--I didn't have a piece of fabric long enough to make the project, and I didn't have anything to fill the inside with. After mentioning my New Year's Resolution, I was bound and determined to make a draft dodger out of materials I already had.

Tune in tomorrow for my solution.