I need to make a draught stopper (extra long) for my front door, and I'm wondering what to fill it with. I don't want to use wheat or anything else organic, as I've had a bad experience with wheat in a door stop breeding weevils...

You can buy stuffing from spotlight - thats what I used for mine - dunlop from memory. Otherwise stuffing from a very old pillow etc.

I also use the bags of stuffing from Spotlight.

All the draught stoppers my parents and grandparents had were filled with sand. I just did a Google search and sand is still being used today.

Sand was my first thought too.

Me too because draught stoppers need good weight.
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2017 09:42AM by Dawn.

I called in to Spotlight and all they had was the filling (little polystyrene balls) for beanbags - obviously far too light and they recommended sand, too. Now I'm wondering whether I need to make an inner liner, so that the sand doesn't leak out. I'm planning to use a tightly-woven fabric, but would appreciate advice on this too!

I definitely would make an inner liner if using sand. I used a very thick peice of furnishing fabric for mine with stuffing and it certainly did the job.

Karena, you should go back to Spotlight and see if they have any non-woven man-made fabrics that sand can't find it's way through. I can think of several types I have seen, but don't know the names of them.

[www.mitre10.co.nz]

also these options available

We have a faux leather one. Looks good but sand still escapes through the seam.

I have just finished making the draught stopper - and it's working well! Because I'm placing it across a wide front entrance, it needed to be about 135 cm long, and it dawned on me that if I filled it with sand or anything else weighty, it would be really heavy to lift, especially as I was following a pattern that recommended having the fabric about 40cm wide. So I painstakingly cut up a small pile of clothes that were too shabby to go to the op shop, and filled it with small pieces of cloth. Filling it was an interesting challenge (I used a broom handle to push it down to start with) but easier towards the end.

Well done, Karena! That should work very well.