Door Stop Tutorial
You only need one fat quarter to make this pyramid doorstop!
There’s no handle involved, so it’s easy peasy and can be made up within an hour. The finished doorstop is around 12cm x 15cm, so that it’s big and heavy enough to hold a door open, but still light enough that you can sweep it aside with your foot when you’re carrying far too many things and haven’t a hand spare.
You’ll need:
- One fat quarter from a Sew Hayley Jane box
- A heavier weight fabric for the base of the doorstop. Canvas or anything upholstery weight would be best, but whatever you have to hand will work just fine!
- Around 1kg of filling for your doorstop – I used gravel, but you can use anything that you fancy! It’s best to have too much on hand than too little, so get more than you think you’ll need just in case. I used all of my gravel in the end, because so much of it went on the floor!
- Pins
- Scissors
- Matching thread
- Sewing machine
- A hand-sewing needle
1) Cut out the square base of the doorstop from the heavier weight fabric – one square measuring 13cm x 13cm. The sturdier fabric is used as the base, as this is the area that will take the weight of the filling and the friction against the floor – you won’t want it to wear through!
2) Cut four triangles from the fat quarter, each with a base of 13cm and a height of 16cm.
3) Split the four triangles into pairs and pin to each other along one of the long sides. Once pinned, Stitch this seam with the edge of the fabric in line with the edge of the presser foot, making sure to backstitch at the start and finish of each seam. Go over the line of stitching a second time to ensure that the seams are as sturdy as possible.
4) Right sides together, place one of these stitched triangle pairs on top of the other and pin the open sides. Stitch along both of these sides with the edge of the presser foot in line with the edge of the fabric, so that all of the triangles are now connected. Sew right up to the top point of the triangles and all the way down to the bottom, and press all seams open. This makes up the ‘body’ of the doorstop.
5) Pick up the body of the doorstop, and open out the unstitched bottom side so that it resembles a square, keeping the wrong sides facing out. Place the base square (cut out in step 1) in front of you, right side facing up. Then put the body of the doorstop (still wrong sides out) directly on top of the base square and pin. Then stitch with the raw edges in line with the edge of the presser foot, being careful to avoid catching the body of the doorstop. Leave a gap in one side around 5cm wide as show in the image below. It’s really important that this stitching is strong, so go directly over the original stitching to make sure that it’s nice and strong!
6) Turn the doorstop inside out through the opening along the base, and gently push the top and the corners out using a pencil or knitting needle to get them nice and pointy. Being careful not to spill it everywhere like I did, pour your chosen filling into the open part of the base – I used gravel, because fillings such as rice can attract pests. Make sure to give the doorstop a little jiggle every now and then as you fill it, to get the gravel to disperse evenly and so that you can see how much you still need to put in. Use your own judgement to decide when it is full – as long as it’s heavy enough to hold a door open, it can be as full up as you want it to be!
7) Once the doorstop is as full as you want it to be, fold the open portion of the base to the inside using roughly the same seam allowance as with the rest – you can do this by eye. Pin the gap closed, and carefully stand the doorstop up to make sure that it looks as full as you want it to; if it doesn’t, add or remove filling until it looks right to you. Using a thread in a matching colour, tightly hand sew this gap closed and tie off.
Ta da! You have one handmade doorstop – and you only used one fat quarter!
