This project is part of a series of sewing projects for beginners written by Helen Rhiannon from All Sewn Up Wales
These simple doorstops are a great project to make as they are very easy to make and small enough to hold a door open without tripping you up! You can choose to use a range of fabrics for each panel and even personalise the panels to really make it your own unique design. It shouldn’t take you too long to make. Enjoy!
What you need…
I used three different fabrics for this doorstop so three fat quarters will be more than enough if you choose to use three fabrics too. You could make lots more from the rest of the fabric! Otherwise, two fat quarters will be sufficient if you want to use two different fabrics.
Fabric – 2-3 Fat Quarters.
I used Colour Me Retro from Art Gallery Fabrics kindly provided by Hantex.
A small square of a heavy cotton the size of the square base. Visit Minerva Crafts for heavy calico.
Wadding to fill the top of the doorstop.
Sand to weigh it down. I use Children’s Play sand from Argos £2.99 for a 15kg Bag. I also use strong food bags to keep the sand in.
Fabric Scissors
Pins
Unpicker
Matching thread
Sewing Machine – Straight stitch length 2.5
To Sew
Stage 1 – Cutting out your doorstop.
Lay fabric out with any patterns facing up. Lay your pattern pieces onto the fabric as instructed and place the edge of the pattern on the fold of the fabric where necessary. Keep the ‘grainline’ in line with the natural straight edge of the fabric.
Stage 2 – Preparing your pieces ready for sewing.
Pin your base fabric to the heavy piece of cotton.
Get your handle, and press a 0.5cm fold into the long lengths on both sides. Then press it in half and pin the edges together. Sew along the length of the strap a few millimetres from the edge.
Next, lay out your four triangles as if you are looking at the doorstop from above to plan which order they will go in. Lay the top left piece face down (right sides together) onto the top right piece, then, lay the bottom right piece face down onto the bottom left piece. (Or go with luck and see which way it turns out!)
f you place them on the table so that the points of the triangle point up (see photo), you should pin the right hand sides together of each piece. Sew each seam with a 1cm seam allowance and press the seams open.
Stage 3 – Sewing the body of your doorstop together.
Place one half of the doorstop on the table with the right side facing up at you. Fold the strap in half lengthways and place the raw edges on the centre seam at the top of the point.
Then place the other half face down on top, matching the edges.
Using pins, position them so you can see the width of the strap which is sitting between the two layers. When you sew up the edge of the doorstop with a 1cm seam allowance starting from the bottom, pivot when you reach the pin and square across to meet the second pin and then continue down the other side of the doorstop with a 1cm seam allowance (See photo below).
This will give you a lovely neat finish when you turn it through the right way.
Stage 4 – Sewing the body to the base.
Place your base piece with the right side of the fabric facing up towards you. With your doorstop turned inside out, match up each corner so that the join in the seam sits exactly on the corner of the base. (See close up photos)
Leaving a gap in one of the long sides to turn through, stitch a 1cm seam allowance all the way around, pivoting exactly on the seam on the corners. Make sure to sew at least 1cm in from each corner on the edge where the gap is.
Stage 5 – Stuffing your doorstop.
Turn your doorstop inside out through the gap and poke each corner out with your fingertip. I don’t trim down the corners as I like the rounded edge it creates in this case.
Stuff the top of your doorstop with wadding to fill it out. If you only use sand it will be quite heavy! Then put a bag inside the doorstop and spoon in the sand bit by bit. When you are happy with the weight, tie the bag and stuff the knot into the centre of the doorstop, amongst the wadding so you don’t see it from the outside.
Stage 6 – Finishing your doorstop.
Hand sew the gap up and voila, one cute little doorstop! You could add buttons or even a little bow at the top of the handle to make it even more unique.
Please let me know how you get on making your own and if you have any questions, then please just get in touch!
Do share pictures on my Facebook fanpage as I love to see what everyone makes.
