Craft Book Month - Lotta Jansdotter's "Simple Sewing"

I wanted to make sure to do a project as part of the Craft Buds - craft book month happening this month. I'd been thinking about making a doorstop for awhile.  In our house a door from the living room leads a poorly insulated area which contains a black hole through which all heat gets sucked out of during the winter if the door is open.  My husband's "room of all things male" is upstairs on the other side of that door, and though his room heats up nicely, when he's got company over there's little point in even trying to heat the house if the door is open because of that black hole.

On the flip side, even in the summer with a fully open door I'm treated to loud cries of "Die you bastards!" shouted at zombies and whatnot that carry to the other end of the house.


 
I figured a doorstop would make it so I can leave the door open just enough for a cat to squeeze through, but cut down on the noise and the draft.

This pattern is in Lotta Jansdotter's "Simple Sewing",  printed in 2007.  I'd found and fallen in love with her Echo line a bit too late to be able to snag all the prints I wanted but have managed to get a couple, including this "spring buds in espresso" that I used for the doorstop.



The pattern was easy to follow, I think the only thing that didn't really need to be there was an instruction to pre-wash the fabric - obviously something full of beans or rice cant go in the wash, so don't see why it'd be necessary to do that.

This is obviously a "hold the front door open" doorstop, not an interior one.  If I'd thought it through would've decreased the size by half.   It calls for 5 pounds of beans, but I wanted the cats to be able to move the door if they need to so I used 1 lb of beans & polyfil which uh...has left a very puffy looking result, since it seems to have expanded and fluffed up in the few days since I finished it.

Finished dimensions about 9" tall, 7" per side at base and 6" per side at the top. Looks bigger in person!


The book had a few nice patterns in it, but nothing else I need to make right now.  All the patterns seem relatively straightforward and not heavy on time commitment, so I'll probably be looking to it in the future again.