Archive | Home-sweet-home

Do you remember this from Wallace & Gromit “The Wrong Trousers”? If not then I really really recommend watching it! I love every detail of this stop motion movie. Joni and I particularly like the Feathers McGraw character, notorious criminal mastermind and bird of many faces. He is so mysterious and funny at the same time! Joni suggested that  I should make my next door stopper just like him :-). 

I wanted to make Feathers McGraw in his chicken disguise, but sadly making his comb (aka the rubber glove on his head) did not quite work out. The fabric I used (PVC sort of fabric as I thought this would represent rubber glove best) did not invert back well after stitching on the wrong side. Maybe you have better ideas for this? Maybe thinner fabric? Anyways, the pattern above is an initial pattern that worked well, minus the chicken comb. Click HERE to see how I made it!Feathers Mcgraw turned out quite friendly after all, he serves as a perfect door stopper :). Really pleased with this project!I hope you will enjoy this project too!

Rasa :)

Since we have moved to our new home we have been missing doors kept open everywhere. The issue is that it’s not easy to keep a heavy door open. The door stopper seems like the only solution. If only we had one door to stop! We have at least three doors that we would like to keep open and we have been stopping it with random stuff such as old laptops (the ones that no longer work, but Joni is keeping them for further experiments). Anyhow, only yesterday I thought of the idea to easily make a door stopper from a stuffed toy. I am thinking to make more door stoppers in the future of course (well… at least one more), but for now this seemed like a great idea! I used this stuffed bird toy that I made last year as a pillow initially, but then it became a shelve deco instead. The only other material/tools I needed to make this transformation is a seam ripper, matching tread & sewing needle and ceramic baking beans (general gravel stones, rice or beans can be used as well, although if you are using grains you probably would need it in bigger quantities). Transforming a stuffed toy into a door stopper is easy. All you need to do is open a seam at the bottom of the toy by using a seam ripper(1.), remove some of the stuffing (not all as you need some to keep a soft shape)(2.) and fill it with the heavy filling such as ceramic baking beans (3.). Don’t forget to stitch the seam back to how it was ;-) (4.).It’s important to remember that you choose a stuffed toy that have a good/wide bottom base. This bird only managed to keep the lighter door open. This is because it has a very slim base with only one seam at the bottom.  In this case I would add more weight by inserting more of ceramic bean filling. I am sure you can play around with the different types of heavy fillings to make it work for you ;-). Door stopper works the best when it is placed at the edge of the door. It also depends on what surface you are placing it on. It worked really well on the carpet, whilst on the tiles or wood floor the door stopper might slide. Hope you found this helpful ;-)

Rasa xoxo