How cold are your outer doors?
I mean two things by this question. Are there draughts coming in around the doors? Are the inside of your outer doors cold to the touch in the winter?
If so consider doing something about it before the weather gets cold. We all know the kind of self-adhesive rubber strips that can be used along the edges of doors and wndows to keep out the draughts. Buy some now if you have cold coming in.
Some years ago, I bought a used washable quilt in a charity shop, which I washed, dryed and sewed a cover for it with loops at the top to suspend it from a curtain pole by.
Below are the complete directions:
•Measure the width of the doorway against the quilt
•If quilt is broader than the doorway, fold the excess width in at the edge, or edges and sew it in place by hand, using a long needle and strong thread – button hole thread, or pack thread.
•You do not need to sew the entire length of the fold, simply sew three or four times through the folded edge, fasten the thread and cut it. Repeat at equally spaced intervals four or six times down the length of the quilt.
•You probably don’t want a plain white quilt hanging in front of a door, so either find an old duvet cover in a suitable colour and use it, or make a cover using a remnant or a pair of old curtains. You will need to fasten the top edge of the quilt to the cover in the same way as the folded edges were fastened.
•This type of curtain is too heavy to be hung up using curtain hooks, as these will bend under its weight. Use tapes, or sew them of the same cloth as the cover. Make loops of the tape, and insert them in the open end of the cover, tack it and sew it in place. Then hang the curtain by inserting the pole through the loops.
The door I was making this for, is as you can see quite low, so one quilt was enough. For a standard sized door you will need more than one quilt to get the required length. Before cutting the piece off the second quilt that you will need to add to the whole one, sew firmly across the quilt twice, with about ½ inch between the two rows of sewing. Again you will need to do this buy hand unless you have an old industrial sewing machine. Cut the quilt between two stiched lines. This way you don't get stuffing leaking out of what is left.
Old fashioned draught excluders along the bottom of doors are a good idea too, either laid there, or taped to the door with duct tape, so that door and draught excluder move together when the door is opened. Draught excluders can be made entirely of old newspapers, or stuffed with them.
You can use thin top mattresses instead of quilts if that is what you can get hold of cheaply.
I have insulated the backs of our attic doors by simply stapling old quilts to them. (You need a very heavy duty stapler, or a staple gun attachment to a compressor.)
This one is Mr. Lang and made of a pair of worn out denim jeans and stuffed with the left over cloth and other bits and pieces from my rag-bag. His eyes and nose are buttons found in a charity shop, as my button box had nothing suitable.
