My home seems to have huge drafts from almost every door, and it is a constant battle to keep the house warm in the winter. After going through my fabric stash recently, I decided to use a lot of larger fabric scraps to put together a patchwork draft snake to keep the chill out.
Materials: Fabric scraps (enough to create a patchwork snake that measures 4” wide and 42” long, or desired length).
Seams are all ½ inch
Cut all pieces 9” wide by desired lengths. I used many different lengths for this snake, and I like the difference in the look throughout. I laid all of my fabric pieces out prior to sewing, and decided the order that I wanted them in.
Once you have arranged your fabric in the desired order, and with right sides facing, stitch the 9” sides together. Press seams open with each new piece. Continue until you have a strip of fabric that measures 9”x 43”.
Fold your snake in half lengthwise, right sides together, and stitch a 1/2” seam along the entire snake. 1/2” before the bottom of the snake, you will pivot without lifting the needle, and stitch across the short end.
Clip your corners, being careful to not cut into the stitches, and then turn the snake right side out (you can use a point turner if needed). Fill the snake with rice (I used a large funnel for this part, and it worked like a dream). Turn the raw edges of the open end of the snake down ½ inch, and machine stitch closed with a zig zag stitch. Gather the rice into the zig zagged sewn end, and repeat the zig zag stitch on the opposite end to match.
Always remember to backstitch all of your seams.
Heather Fontenot lives with her family on the Front Range of Northern Colorado. She has a passion for natural and creative living, and spends as much of her time outdoors as possible. She loves to knit, sew, garden, photograph, read and home school her two sweet little ones. She writes the blog, Shivaya Naturals, where she chronicles her life as a mother, artist, and gluten free baker.