Now that winter is here and those nights are chillier and the wind is often gusty, how about checking some of those draughts and saving on the heating bills by making your own door draught excluder?  It's easier than you think.  You don't have to have a single large piece of fabric, any scraps will do.  You can mix and match a range of colours and textures to create a lovely bright feature for your hallway.  Here's how .......

Door Draught Excluder Fabrics

Select some fabrics.  These can be in a similar tonal range, but in different textures.  Here we have used some heavy weight upholstery fabric with an almost North African flair which was left over from making a chair seat cushion for a client, teamed with some pieces of velvet from a book of samples of discontinued fabric.  You could use a variety of different colours with a similar texture, or colours and textures which contrast.  Or why not use florals and stripes, or checks?  You may even find some interesting fabrics in charity shops - a perfect bit of "upcycling" (see our Blog on www.888lorna.wordpress,.com)

Step one

Play with different combinations of colour and texture until you find a combination that you like.  You can create all sorts of 'looks' - rustic, shabby chic, modern bold stripes of colour, anything that matches your own style of decor and colour scheme.

Step 2

Sew all the pieces together allowing at least 1/2" (or 1.5 cm) for seams.  If the fabric looks likely to fray it may be better to overlock the edges if  you can, but as the seams will be inside the draught excluder this is not usually necessary.

Step 3

Continue to join fabric pieces together until long enough to fit the door, plus seam allowances at each end.  We made ours 34" (cut 35" with seams) long which is fairly standard for a front door, and 7" wide as the door has a stormboard outside and we wanted to be sure to cover the gaps to each side.   Repeat the process to make a second strip of fabric.  Press all seams open.

Step 4

Place both fabric pieces together, right sides facing and stitch around the edges, leaving a 6" gap to turn right sides out and to add the filling.  You don't have to buy special wadding.  We used scraps of fabric cut into strips.  You could also use an old towel,  old pullovers or T-shirts, or old socks.  As long as they are clean!  You could even use shredded newspaper, or if you have some old cushions that have become matted you could use the fillling.  There are all sorts of eco-friendly materials you could use.  Once you have enough filling in place, fold the edges in, press and pin in place.  Close the seam either using handstitching or machine very close to the edge.  Your door draught excluder is ready to go.

Got some ideas you want to share?

Moving Home comes with a great opportunity to let go of a lot of clutter and take stock of what is of real value.  Leaving behind a three bed semi with a very large garden for a small 1 bedroom cottage is the perfect platform for a spot of recycling.  Enter Necessary Furniture, a local company who for the cost of a phone call will come and take away unwanted items of furniture to a warehouse where things are stored until someone else decides to give them a new home, in return for a very modest fee!  Other small items of furniture found shelter among family and friends.  Some slightly more weary pieces found their way into the Council wood recyling facility.

Those bits that made it on to the van and off the other end got a shock.......  Where are the white walls and stripped wooden floors we went so well with?  A green carpet?  Suddenly all the stripped furniture looks totally out of synch and dated, even scruffy.  Being in rented accommodation and for an indefinite time means having to live with it for now. And there's still plenty of life left in this solid vintage furniture.   As the days go by,  with smaller windows letting in lower levels of light,  a flash of inspiration pierces the gloom and "Eureka - I reach for the paintbrush!"    Shabby Chic saves the day!  It started with the chest of drawers in the bedroom, and spread to the desk and then to the sideboard in the living room, and on to the shelf in the hall.  Where will it all end?  Where else can you get so much fun from £14.99?  And the pot's not empty yet !  It took a bit of hunting to get the right shade of grey, but there was a soft light shade in the Dulux mix-your-own range.  Not so stark as white, but still light enough to merge with the green carpet and go with the magnolia walls!  I'm sure I'll find other things to shabby chic to the end of the pot.

Not sure what to do about the curtains yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.......

Have you ever had a favourite outfit that you loved so much you wore it to death and you have never been able to replace it?   Whatever happened to timeless elegance in the rush to conform to the High Street command of "get the latest look"?  How much money would we have left over for that holiday we have all been dreaming of if our clothes lasted more than one season?

Well, hemp fabric could be the answer.

Here are 10 reasons why we should all get excited about hemp

• Hemp is stronger than cotton.  It is the most durable natural fibre with the highest abrasion resistance and tensile strength amongst all of the natural fibres, providing maximum wear and use

• It becomes softer with use.  The inherent lustre and light reflecting qualitites of hemp are enhanced by washing

• The fabric breathes as well as linen and better than cotton, and is as effective an insulator as wool.  It feels cooler in summer and during cool weather it retains body heat

• Hemp resists staining by releasing a microscopic layer of cells with each laundering, exposing a fresh surface.  In effect, this means that hemp retains its sleek sheen every time it is washed, that it never dulls and that it releases stains more easily than other fabrics.  It becomes finer and more luxurious with use.

• It will not stretch out of shape, so it will always look good

• The fabric is very porous, making it highly absorbent and quick drying.   Hemp absorbs more moisture than cotton and much more than synthetic fibres, and faster.

• It is naturally resistant to mould, mildew and bacteria, and naturally mothproof, and has natural antimicrobial properties, so it does not need to be treated with chemicals and is therefore better for you and your family's health and well-being

• Hemp blocks UV rays more effectively than any other fabrics with less fibre degradation from UV exposure than any other natural fibre, making it especially good for window coverings and a wide range of eco soft-furnishings

• With a longer lifespan than other natural fabrics, it can render a lifetime of service,  is biodegradable and easily recyclable and even more than any other eco fabrics lends itself to re-fashioning and upcyclling.

Wow!  And if  you thought that hemp fabric and eco textiles means a return to the dark ages and the days of sackcloth, look again.  With ever better production methods, fibres can be polished and finished to much higher standards than ever before, meaning that it is possible to be indulgent and kind to the environment at the same time.  Read more on our Natural Organic Fabric Page.

Anything we've missed here?  We'd love to hear from you.......

Ever wondered why you get a headache or become mysteriously 'off colour' when you go on holiday?  Not so long ago I treated myself to a short break with a swimming pool, sauna, gym and yoga classes and was so looking forward to relaxing and regenerating my batteries.  I had hardly been in the hotel room more than an hour or two when I developed a headache and felt really 'off' and 'liverish'.  I put it down to a reaction to having been stressed and tense for so long previous to that.  Now I'm not so sure.

Ever since making some curtains for a hotel and a nursing home I have known that fire safety regulations dictate that fabrics used for making curtains and the covering of furniture such a sofas and chairs be coated with flame retardant chemicals to reduce the risk of fire.  I imagine it's the same for carpets.  Now I have experienced first hand just what this means in terms of human health and well-being.

I shall give where I next go on holiday some very careful consideration.  Camping anyone?

For more information about eco textiles and eco soft-furnishings visit our natural organic fabric page.

One of our foibles is vintage chairs.  They are full of character and charm, not to mention a dash of mystery.  Who has sat on this chair and what was their life like?  We love to rescue tired pieces and give them a clean up and recover them in modern jazzy chic fabrics, giving them a new look and personality.

The vintage chair above right is an unusual piece, which recently found a new home when it was on display at one of our shows in Orford Town Hall, Orford, Suffolk.  The top quality fabric is called 'Casca' from the Cantello collection by ROMO - a strikingly bold pink velvet geometric pattern on a dark brown canvas background.  The fabric was chosen because it mirrored the pattern in the cane worked back, and it looked stunning.  A young couple saw it and fell in love with its quirky style.  It's great to know it will be given pride of place in their bedroom as a feature. 

Why buy vintage chairs?

• They are well made of solid wood
  
• Not only do they look great, they'll last a lifetime 
  
• They can easily be repaired, refreshed and updated over and over again, unlike their modern counterparts
• Old wooden chairs don't give off harmful gasses into your living environment
• Restoring old chairs is often less costly than buying new