Once you’ve made one and mastered how to do it, you’ll be able to sew them for all the rooms in your home in no time, improving insulation and making a much more comfortable, cosy place for you and your family. Before you buy your draught excluder, there are some factors for you to consider, helping you to choose the best one for your needs.

It takes a matter of minutes to make a plain draught excluder, and if you use interesting fabric it doesn't have to look boring. Or you can turn it into a ECOutletsnake, like the fab vintage ones above. What you need Draught excluders are an essential winter craft. Not only are they super useful for preventing cold air from coming in under your doors and windows, no one likes to be sat in a draught, but they are also key in helping to keep your heating bills down.

Best door draught excluders and stoppers 2023

Internal doors between two rooms only need draught—proofing if they lead to a room that you don’t normally heat during the winter months. Keep those doors closed to stop the cold air from moving into the rest of the house.

There are also draught excluders made from the leg of old jeans, an old pair of tights or old woolly jumper sleeves. They can be stuffed with newspaper, rice, lentils, the pad from an old cushion, polystyrene foam, peanuts, bubble wrap or carrier bags – whatever you have at home. You can also make a laminate fabric one, too, which is easy to clean.

Doorstops and draught excluders and much, much more.

A rectangular piece of material, at least 40cm wide and just longer than the width of the door (or you can chop a leg off an old pair of trousers and start at step five) As we're slowly coming up to the colder months, there is no better time to learn how to make a draught excluder for your home with our free sewing pattern and simple tutorial. The benefit of sewing your own draught excluder is that you can personalise the design by choosing fabrics of your choice and can make sure it’s the perfect fit for where you want to use it. You can even embellish it with some pretty hand embroidery or applique patches so that it ties in fully with the rest of your decor.

Use a letterbox flap or brush. Just make sure you measure it first to make sure you buy the right size.You may think draughts are something that just affects old properties, but even newer homes can experience problems with cold air sweeping through. Doors and windows can have even the slightest gap underneath, creating the perfect spot for cold air to slip through. Can you clean it easily? Some fabrics are easier to clean than others. If being able to give your draught excluder a good clean is important to you, look for one that’s got a removable cover so you can take it off to give it a scrub. Or, better still, choose one with a cover that can be popped in the washing machine for easy cleaning. Stopping a draught is sometimes what you need more than turning the heating on, a simple draught stopper could save you money as well as stop cold air entering your home.