Warm Worms

I’m starting to think that our beautiful old house might better serve as a spring/summer vacation home.

This weekend, fed up with the frigid kitchen and drafty windows, I became obsessed with the idea of getting window draft stoppers. But everything online was uninspiring, plus I wanted them immediately. Plus I was nagged by the fact that I have a sewing machine, a big bag of fabric remnants, and the basic ability to sew right angles.

But what I seem to be short on these days is free time, so I decided to engage Laurel in the process, especially since I wanted to make some fun draft stoppers for the bay windows next to her “office.” So I took Laurel to the store to help me pick out rice (two 20-lb bags!). I showed Laurel the parts of my sewing machine while I unpacked and threaded it. And then I enlisted her in the important process of picking out just the right googly eyes to adorn her three “warm worms.” (Luckily this process inadvertently involved several repetitions of size/color sorting and dumping/refilling before the eyes were chosen.)
It was surprisingly fast and easy to knock together a fleet of window draft stoppers. Here’s how: 1) Cut fabric to about 10” wide x 3” longer than the width of the window. 2) Fold fabric in half wrong side out (i.e., 5” wide x length), and sew one short then long side, leaving the remaining short side open. Turn fabric right side out. 3) Fill a pantyhose leg full of rice (even if you are just making one, it’s easier to fill the hose before you cut the leg off), dropping the hose into the fabric sleeve as you go. Do not fill the fabric sleeve to maximum capacity; you want considerable give so you can mold the stopper to fit your window. Tie the hose end off. 4) Fold in the rough, open end of the sleeve and sew shut.

For the “warm worms” I cut red tongues out of felt and sewed them in while I was sewing the short seam shut in step #2 (alternatively you could use glue). Then Laurel and I attached the googly eyes at the end.

Laurel was so intrigued by this process (then entertained by the worms themselves) that I was able to make the 3 fleece worms plus a couple more regular draft stoppers (from some pretty cotton duck fabric remnants) alongside her. I finished up the rest of the fleet (for a total of 12!) over naptime.