How to make a doorstop

Fix that door that’s always drifting shut with a handmade doorstop. It’s a quick and easy thing to make and is filled with uncooked rice, sand or dried pulses. You can make it to coordinate with the fabrics in your room or use a bright fabric to make a feature of it.

You will need

• one third of a metre of cotton fabric
• Iron-on interlining
• A small piece of contrasting fabric or ribbon
• Matching thread
• Sufficient dried rice or beans to fill

Cut out  the fabric

Cut out the following pieces

• A square 18cm x 18cm from main fabric
• 4 triangles – with base of 16cm and height of 16cm from main fabric
• A square 18cm x 18cm from interlining
• 4 triangles – with base of 16cm and height of 16cm from interlining
• A strip 16cm x 8cm in the contrasting fabric

Fuse the interlining to the fabric

Place the interlining, glue side down, onto the wrong side of each fabric piece and iron it to the fabric.

Make the carry handle

Take the strip of contrasting fabric and folding it with rights sides together sew a 1 cm seam up the long side. Turn it right side out. Position the seam in the middle. Fold the fabric over and press with an iron. Put on one side.

Sew the panels together and attach the handle

With right sides together, machine stitch 2 of the fabric triangles together along 1 of the long sides. Press open the seam. Repeat with the remaining 2 fabric triangles. Place the stitched triangle pairs on top of each other, matching the raw edges. Take the handle and fold it in half so that the seam is now inside the fold. Place the raw-edged handle ends in the middle of the triangle peaks between the 2 layers of fabric. Leaving a small opening on one of the long sides, pin and then machine stitch the remaining long sides together to create a pyramid, so that when turned the right way out the handle will be coming out of the top. Press the seams open. Clip across the seam allowance at the apex of the triangle to neaten.

Sew the pyramid to the base.

With the right sides together, pin the square base to the bottom edges of the pyramid and machine in place, one  side at a time, pivoting at the corners. Trim the seams at the  corners. Turn the pyramid right side out.

Fill the pyramid and finish off

Using a kitchen funnel inserted into the gap you’ve left in the side seam, fill your pyramid with rice or baking beans. If you don’t have a funnel, take a piece of paper and roll it into a cone and tape it with some sticky tape. Put the narrow end of the cone into the gap and pour in the rice or other filling. Slip-stitch the  opening closed. And that’s it!

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