Fireplace Draft Stopper: Easy DIY Sewing Tutorial
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Block out cold drafts in fall and winter. Learn how to make an easy fireplace draft stopper with fabric, a pillow, and this sewing tutorial.
As summer winds down, it’s time to start thinking about the cooler weather that’s just around the corner. Do you have trouble keeping your house warm throughout the fall and winter months?
One way to save heating costs is to block cold drafty air from coming through your fireplace vents. Today we’re sharing how to make a fireplace draft stopper using upholstery fabric, a body pillow, and this super easy sewing tutorial. This simple DIY idea would also be useful if you need to sew a door draft excluder or draft blocker to prevent wind from coming under your front door.
Save money by blocking air drafts
When the weather starts to get cooler, we have a big problem at our house. Cold drafty air starts wafting through the fireplace vent making it cold in our living room. If you’ve got the same issue then this easy sewing tutorial we’re sharing today is for you! We’ll share how we made a DIY fireplace draft stopper to block the cold air.
Plus we’ve found when you use a draft blocker or door draft excluder, it helps save money. Heating a drafty house sure can be expensive, especially during cold autumn and winter months in Michigan where we live.
Every fall and winter, we had the same challenge with our gas fireplace. On cold windy days, frigid air would come blowing through it giving us the chills. We tried blocking the draft by rolling up old fleece blankets or using throw pillows from our couch. But inevitably the dog or one of the kids would bump it and the draft would sneak through again.
Worse yet, the fleece blankets always looked like a big messy pile whenever company came over to visit. Plus it’s difficult and downright costly to keep the house warm with that much of a cold draft coming through all the time. We desperately needed a better solution for a draft excluder than those rolled up throw blankets.
Our next attempt for a draft blocker was to use a body pillow. During my pregnancies with each of the boys, I slept better at night if I curled up around a long body pillow. However, once we were well past both pregnancies that old body pillow was no longer useful. One day I saw the body pillow just collecting dust on a high shelf in our closet when inspiration struck me! It was the perfect size and shape to fit across the bottom of our fireplace.
Now my only problem was the white terrycloth pillowcase that came with the body pillow didn’t go with the rest of our decor. I’m really not much of a seamstress. But I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to sew a pillow cover to make a decorative draft stopper. Out came the sewing machine and in less than an hour I had a beautiful fireplace draft stopper.
How to Sew a Fireplace Draft Stopper
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I created this easy sewing tutorial to make a fireplace draft stopper. However, you could easily modify it to make a door draft excluder or draft blocker using a queen or king-sized pillow instead of an extra-long body pillow.
WARNING: Always move the draft stopper to a safe place out of the way whenever you have a fire in your fireplace. Having a large fabric covered pillow like this in front of your vent when the fireplace is in use is a fire safety hazard.
What You Need:
- Fabric (I used upholstery fabric that I found in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby.)
- Body pillow (If you don’t have one, you could easily use Poly-fil instead.)
- Pins
- Measuring tape
- Sewing scissors
- Sewing machine
- Thread (Pick a color that coordinates well with your fabric)
- Iron
Instructions:
Here’s how I made our fireplace draft stopper. Just follow these easy steps and you’ll have one too.
1. Measure and Cut Your Fabric
Measure the body pillow length and width then double it. Iron your fabric and mark your dimensions. Give yourself at least an extra inch of fabric all the way around for the seams.
2. Fold Fabric in Half, Sew the Length
Fold your fabric in half length-wise so the backside of the fabric is on the outside. Pin the edges together and iron the fabric.
Next, use the sewing machine to sew a 1/2″ seam along the length of the fabric. Then turn the fabric right side out.
3. Stuff the Body Pillow Into the Case
Since the fabric I bought on clearance wasn’t very wide, I had to fold the body pillow in half length-wise. Then I stuffed it into the pillowcase I just made, sort of like a sausage!
At this point, I left both ends of the fireplace draft stopper open. This allowed me to easily grab the pillow through the opening on the one end as I shoved it through the opening on the other side. Once I was done, I debated about whether to turn in the ends of the fabric on the draft blocker. I decided I really liked the fringe look though!
4. Sew the Ends of the Draft Stopper Closed
Since I decided to leave the fringy ends on my fabric, I just sewed the end closed using my sewing machine.
Next, I flipped the draft stopper around and sewed the other side closed too.
Then finally I trimmed any stray threads off the fringe to finish the draft stopper.
5. Use Your New Draft Blocker to Stop Drafts
When I was all done, I carried the new draft stopper upstairs from my craft room and put it in front of the vent in our fireplace.
I love how the new draft stopper looks in our living room. The colors in the upholstery fabric go perfectly with both our fall mantel decor and as well as our winter mantel decor.
But honestly, I think the fringe on the ends is my favorite part! It really gives the whole draft stopper an extra decorative touch, don’t you think?
I’d love to know how your draft stopper turns out! If you post pics on Facebook or Instagram, please tag me @kenarryideas or send me an e-mail so I can see your awesome creation.
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While you’re here, be sure to check out other sewing ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –
- How to Make a Pillow Using Extra Fabric
- Easy Sew Burlap Placemats
- DIY Felt Birthday Banner
- How to Sew a Placemat in 5 Simple Steps
If you enjoyed this fireplace draft stopper idea, please share this with your friends or pin it for later:
Post updated September, 2019.
whenever i use a pillow i need to fold in half, i fold or roll it up and hand sew it up into that shape. plus, to save sweat and tear’s later, i make a cushion cover liner out of satiny type fabric. i usually use shower curtain fabric. then when it come’s to removing your lovely top cushion for washing, it just slide’s on or off so easily.