Blog Action Day: A Crafty Project to Conserve Energy

Today is Blog Action Day, which I learned about last week on Whipup.net.  The idea is for as many people as possible to post about the same important topic which, this year, is the environment.  The idea is that a wide variety of blogs participate and that each one includes a post the has something to do with its usual theme.   Since my blog is all about making craft projects, I've decided to post about an easy, energy-saving project I was able to complete in less than two hours, a draft snake.

According to our electric company, leaky doors and windows can account for five to 40 percent of a home's energy use.  This is surely more of a problem in older houses, but even in practically new houses like ours we have an energy-sucking one-inch gap at the bottom of the door between our kitchen and garage, as well as a somewhat lesser one between our master bedroom and an uninsulated storage closet under the eaves. 

A draft snake is basically a long skinny beanbag that sits at the base of a door or widow to block a draft, hopefully cutting down on wasted energy.  Lotta Jansdotter's book, Simple Sewing, includes instructions for a very basic draft snake.  I liked the pieced exterior of hers, but needed to change a couple of things.  First of all, I had to make a removable cover.  One of these is going to be sitting on my kitchen floor, below a cat door and I'm absolutely going to have to be able to wash it.  The second was that her instructions called for making a tube out of a four-inch wide tube of fabric, which is way too small for my doors.  (It's probably a great size for windows, as in the picture in her book.)

I ended up making a patchwork panel 9 by 36 inches.  I used a six-inch solid panel on each end and pieced cotton prints in the middle.  The downstairs snake used fabrics from Moda's Uptown series with chocolate corduroy as the solid panels.  The upstairs one used a bunch of random and vaguely Asian themed fabrics with linen as the solid panels.

After I made the panels, I ironed fusible fleece onto the back, then pinned a piece of satin (shiny side out -- it's the lining) to the panel and quilted it.  The idea behind the satin lining, is that it will make it easier to put the beanbag insert in.

Once the panel was quilted, I folded the panel with right sides together an stitched around the exterior, leaving a six inch opening in the middle.  (In retrospect, this was not the best idea, since the beanbag part is not flexible enough to bend exactly in half.  The opening should have been placed toward one of the ends.)  I turned what was now the cover right side out and topstitched around the edges of the opening.  I then added a button and an elastic loop so the cover could be closed. 

Then, I made the beanbag part, which basically consisted of making a 7-1/2 by 35 inch tube out of flannel, filling it with beans and then closing up the end.  Because this goes inside the cover, and because the cover is quilted (which gives it some structure on its own) there was no need to turn this inside out or use slipstitching to close up the end.  All of the seams are visible, but you can't tell once the cover is on.  It took me about six cups of beans to fill the flannel tube.  This part of the project was kind of awkward and messy.  If you're making one of these, I would suggest having someone help you with this part.  It's easy enough to make a cardstock cone to guide the beans into the tube, but I found it difficult to hold the (very long) tube and the cone and scoop the beans all at the same time.  I ended up with lots of beans on the floor of my work room.

Now that both parts were done, I just put the beanbag part into the cover.  The satin lining may have seemed a bit excessive, but it really did make it easier to put the cover on.  The kitchen/garage snake has been in place for two days now and, except for a brief investigatory mission by my cats (which involved them pulling it away from the door and halfway across the room) it has been working beautifully.

Comments

[Regina]

Very cool. I have a few doors that need this!

[Lisa]

What a great project. I was just flipping through Lotta's book last night in Joanns. I didn't get to this project, but now I want to go back for a second look.

[jodie]

Great snake ! I have a little tip - when filling anything with beans - do it in the bath ! Put in the plug and stand in the bath - so much easier to clean up all those ones that are sure to get away !

[Coryn]

Hi, this is great. I had thought that the 4" measurement of Lotta's seemed a little narrow. The satin is a great idea.

I agree with making removable covers. I like things to be washable, esp. around kids and dogs.

[Lia]

This is a great idea and I need to do this ASAP, feeling a draft right now :(
Can you tell me why use beans?

[Elizabeth]

Thanks! You don't have to use beans. You can use rice, lentils, or even gravel. You just need something that's small and kind of heavy that will produce a semi-flexible shape (something that will kind of mold to the door and floor). I like pinto beans because they're bigger than rice or lentils, but not sharp like gravel.

[Lia]

Thank you Elizabeth once again. i made my first one and working on my second right now :))
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10175592@N07/