DIY Door Stopper: How to make an Owl Doorstop Out of Jeans
I don’t know about you but I honestly hate it when my doors close slowly on their own, especially when I’m trying to cool my entire apartment with the air conditioners. That’s why I use doorstops.
You can find doorstops in any craft shop or toy store, but buying them isn’t fun at all. Making one by yourself from scratch is way more interesting. Which is precisely why I’m here today, to show you how to do that.
This kind of DIY project will allow you to recycle something you’d throw out otherwise, like a pair of old jeans, and to make an adorable owl doorstop from it. It’s also quite simple and it doesn’t require a lot of time. Enough chit chat for now, it’s time for me to start explaining the steps.
Table of Contents
How to make a door stopper
DIY door stopper Supplies
For this project, you’ll need the following materials. A sheet of paper for the pattern, scissors or shears, a pen or a pencil, a pair of old jeans, a piece of felt, some rice and fiberfill, a needle and a thread, and of course, your trusted sewing machine or even better – a denim sewing machine if you intend to sew with denim (or multiple layers of it) frequently.
Now gather all materials and tools and proceed to the fun part – the making of the DIY door stopper.
How to sew a fabric door stopper
Supplies and tools:
- fabric – 2 pieces of denim or other heavy-weight fabric (one main, one lining)
- stuffing
- polyester pellets, or something similar with a bit of weight (rice or wheat also work)
- matching thread
- scissors (or rotary cutter and a cutting mat)
- ruler or measuring tape
- iron and ironing board
- sewing clips or pins
- sewing machine
Step 1: Freehand the owl door stop pattern design
Use a pen and a sheet of pattern paper to draw out a rough design of the owl. The idea here is to make the doorstop symmetrical, so you don’t have to draw the entire thing, just half will be enough. Make the bottom part about one inch smaller than the body piece on each sides.
There’s no need for you to use rulers, freehand drawing is perfectly fine for this as the pattern does not need to be exact.
Step 2: Cut the parts out
Now that the design is finished, you can cut out the pieces from your old jeans with a pair if sharp scissors or shears. Don’t forget to fold the material first so that you get a symmetrical piece when you unfold it. After you’ve cut out the front, the back, and the bottom, you should also cut our the eyes.
Use felt for the white on the eyes and old jeans denim for the pupils. Pupils should be about two times smaller than the white part.
Step 3: Assemble the owl door stopper
Take the parts for the eyes and stitch them to the fabric by using a zig zag stitch. Start with sewing the white felt to the front of the owl and then stitch the pupils to the white felt, again with a zig zag stitch.
After that, use a decorative stitch to create a simple triangle design for the beak and the wings. It’s up to you to decide which type of decorative stitch you’ll be using, so let your creativity run wild. I’ve used the triple stitch for the outline and a zigzag to fill the beak.
Next pin the front and the back together, but leave a three inch opening on the side. Pin the bottom as well and start sewing. Begin from the bottom with a ¼ allowance and proceed to sew the front and back with identical settings. Don’t stitch the opening together, you need it for the stuffing.
Snip some notches the curved parts and trim the excess fabric from the seams allowance. We do this so that the seams can lay flat.
Now turn the owl right side out and fill the doorstop with rice and fiberfill. First, I filled in the fiberfill for about 2/3 of the upper part of the owl, and then filled the remaining 1/3 with rice. You can or use something else if you prefer. Lastly handsew the opening shut with a ladder stitch.
Hope you find my cute fabric door stopper tutorial helpful. Have you made the owl door stopper? Let me know how it turned out in the comments.
If you want to make even more useful things out of old jeans, check out my tutorial how to sew a denim bookmark in 5 minutes!
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