Not my scheduled, first make of the new year, but much though I love living in an old, Victorian house, at this time of the year it’s flipplin’ freezing! We also put new floor boards in recently, which are great, but have resulted in a wider gap all around the bottom of our front door…
I spent a good hour or so searching through old, sewing magazines, thinking this was exactly the type of random pattern they feature, but sadly to no avail. I always enjoy flicking through them anyway, so it was no great loss: you always find inspiration from something you’d instantly dismissed the first time around. Anyway, the very next morning the new issue of Love Sewing magazine arrived on my doorstep featuring a scrappy dog draft excluder: perfect!
To be honest, I probably could have drafted my own version, but the template outline was really useful. My drawing skills really aren’t up to much.
I increased the length to accommodate our rather portly, front door. I also wanted it to attach to the door, so that it didn’t come away every time the door was opened or closed (despite my best efforts I’ve never managed to train my children, or husband (!), to replace it afterwards). So, using some furniture (I think) trimming I found in a charity shop a while back, I attached two Champagne corks (thank you New Year’s Eve) to hook it under. Granted, the corks look a little odd from the outside, but it’s a Winter fix, so it won’t be permanent, and I didn’t want to use anything that would scratch the new boards.
I managed to make it entirely from my stash, so even though it wasn’t planned, I could justify it π The fabric was something I bought when I first started sewing, intending (as you do) to make some ridiculously, complicated bag out of it. It was too small for clothing, hence it didn’t get used up in my recent stash-diet. I had a little toy stuffing left over from one of my daughter’s craft kits, so I used this to stuff the ears and trickier parts of the legs. The rest was stuffed with various old tights and socks (of course all clean) which made the entire family do a quick sock drawer sort-out to boot π
My children have named her Sally (the sausage dog). My daughter rightfully pointed out to my son that sausage dogs can be girls too π
Oh, and a couple of you requested a photograph of my Christmas table runner in action. Here she is, just before the food went out π