This does however mean I have a fairly large supply of small pieces of fabric and an even larger supply of tiny scraps. Things that couldn’t be used for anything, and a lot of serger shreds and thread cuttings.

I was getting a bit over-run with a big bag of shreds and as I lay in bed yesterday having a very unusual lie in, I was struck with inspiration.

I live in a 1 storey house. We have a huge ranch slider in our bedroom which is often open and that means the door always needs to be propped open because of the breeze. For the last year, I have been using a spare pillow, sometimes a laundry basket for this job

Fabric Prep

I got to work unpicking the seams and also salvaged 6 awesome buttons and a length of drawstring (bonus!). I had to sew a couple of pieces together to get the shape I needed but you don’t see that, and it wouldn’t matter if you did.

To make the pieces I measured out my triangles – making sure they were straight and even. My triangles were 25cm high, not quite equilateral as the bottom width was 21. This linen is a soft washed style and so I used my pinking shears to cut all the edges, meaning I also wouldn’t need to finish the seams.

 Once I had my 4 triangles, I measured out a square that matched the bottom edge of the triangle pieces – so 21 x 21cm.

Ready To Sew

I pieced all the triangle pieces together, right sides together. I alternated my yellow and teal colour and sewed the long edges to the point together. I sewed with a 1cm seam allowance which I had taken into account when measuring out my pieces.

I then took a long rectangular piece of the linen, folded in half right sides together and sewed one short edge and the long edge together to make the handle. I pulled this out the right way and finished up the last short edge before folding it under and attaching to my triangles. 

I must be honest, this handle was an after thought and so not the best, but it does the job completely well. 

I think decided I wanted a little bit of decoration and so picked out a decorative vine stitch on my machine and ‘edge’ stitched this along each side of the seams. This also held my seam allowance in place on the inside.

Fill ‘er up!

To install the zipper, I cut a slice diagonally in my square matching the length of my zip. I folded back the sliced to create a window and installed my zipper. Leaving the zipper open so I could turn it all inside out, I matched the edges of the square piece to the edges of the triangles (which is still inside out). Using a 1cm seam allowance I sewed all the way round, pivoting at the corners. I pulled the point of the triangles out through the zipper opening to turn it all right sound out and bingo!

Last thing was just to stuff it with shreds and scraps. Because of the point stuff some smaller pieces, serger shreds of thread cuttings first. You will really need to pack the door stop out, it takes a surprising about of scraps. Once it’s stuffed full and solid, zip up and that using your hands pad it all into shape.

Voila… a co-ordinating door stop. Zero waste sewing at its best!