Stitch 'n ' Knit: Don't stop me knooow - Tutorial for cubic door stop

I’m testing the benefits of time pressure on craft projects. There is a time to be leisurely crafting and there is a time for action.

I find I perform at my best when a very tight deadline is what is needed. It might also be linked to poor concentration skills, thinking of it.

In my case, since I do not have a dedicated room to contain a creative explosion, I need to manage time and space. If I want to take a break, I cannot close the door and forget about that niggling silk bias that doesn’t want to behave. If I used my floor space, one cannot access to the kitchen without tiptoeing around fabric.

How do you do?

This door stop is another time-bound project. I had this idea of doing a door stop in a shape of a cube with a big handle to carry it around and wedge it against doors.

I used the fabric samples I was given by a friend and some wadding to stiffen each face. I thought that given the quantity of fabric and the shape, the cube could sag and loose its recognisable shape.

Each face measure 13cm x 13cm. I cut a piece of paper to use as a pattern and then cut 6 squares in red-themed fabric and 6 squares of wadding. I knew wadding gives a lovely finished but has a habit to slide. Since this wadding is fibrous, it needs to be stitched wadding up and fabric down against the feed dogs. The other way round will mean fibres get caught in the dogs and life is hell.

I also made an inner bag of the same dimensions to contain the rice to weight down the fabric. This means that if the door stop needs washing, one can pop one of the side seam and get the rice out in one go.

Something I forgot to do is to fill the part above the rice bag with either wadding or polystyrene filling. This was to give more consistence to the shape. I guess that I must have been happy with the end result if I forgot. That is my excuse at least.

Tutorial

You’ll need:

- 750g of rice sand or pulses

- Pattern (square measuring 13cm x 13cm)

- Wadding (26cm x 39cm)

- Outer bag fabric, either one piece (26cm x 39cm), or 6 pieces (each 13cm x 13cm)

- Inner bag fabric (any remnant will do) (26cm x 39cm)

- 2 strip of fabric 25cm x 8cm

1. Cut the fabric squares using the pattern.

2. Cut the wadding using the pattern

3. Place the two strips of fabric on top of each other with wrong side facing up stitch on either side.

4. Turn the strip inside out, iron flat, stitch on either side at 0.7 mm from the edge.

5. Place each square of fabric against a square of wadding. The right side of the fabric should be visible. Put a couple of pin in the centre of each square to secure the wadding.