No special tools, no new materials — just an hour and what you already have
A window that lets cold air seep through its frame is one of those small, persistent problems that is easy to live with for too long. The draft is never quite bad enough to call someone about, but it is bad enough to make the room feel colder than it should, to make the heating work harder than it needs to, and to leave a faint chill near wherever you sit or sleep. A draft stopper placed along the sill changes this immediately and costs almost nothing to make.
The kind sold in shops — sometimes called draft snakes or draft excluders — are usually filled with polystyrene beads or synthetic stuffing and sold in packaging that generates more waste than the product justifies. The homemade version works just as well, lasts longer when made from sturdy fabric, and uses materials that most households already have in some form. Uncooked rice is the filling of choice here: it is heavy enough to stay in place, fine enough to fill a narrow tube completely, and available in every kitchen.
This guide covers a window sill draft stopper — the long, narrow kind that sits horizontally across the bottom of a window frame on the inside. The same method works for door draft stoppers with minor adjustments in length.
What you need
No sewing machine is required for this project. A needle and thread is all the equipment needed, along with a few basic items for measuring and cutting. If you do have a sewing machine, it will speed things up on the long seams, but the hand-sewn version is equally durable when the stitches are tight and even.
Materials
On fabric choice: the outer layer does not need to be beautiful, but it does need to hold weight without stretching or tearing over time. Thin cotton jersey, lightweight lining fabric, or very worn sheeting will all struggle under the weight of rice and may split at the seams within a few months. Denim from an old pair of jeans, canvas from a worn bag, medium-weight upholstery fabric, or thick cotton drill are all good choices. If the fabric you have is on the thinner side, use two layers throughout to compensate.
On rice: almost any uncooked rice works. Broken rice or the older rice at the back of the cupboard that you are unlikely to cook is ideal — it gives the grain a second use before it is composted or discarded. Do not use instant or pre-cooked rice, which will not behave the same way, and make sure whatever rice you use is completely dry before it goes into the fabric tube.
Measure the window and cut the fabric
Measure the width of your window sill from one side of the frame to the other. This is the finished length you are aiming for. Add 3 centimetres to this measurement to account for seam allowance at each end — so if your window sill is 90 centimetres wide, you will cut your fabric to 93 centimetres in length.
For the width of the fabric piece, decide how fat you want the finished stopper to be. A diameter of around 5 to 7 centimetres is practical for most window sills — wide enough to block a draft effectively without being so bulky that it sits awkwardly or falls off the sill. To calculate the width of fabric needed, multiply your intended diameter by 3.14 (pi) to get the circumference, then add 2 centimetres for seam allowance. For a 6 centimetre diameter stopper, that means cutting your fabric to roughly 21 centimetres wide.
Cut one rectangle of fabric to these dimensions. If your fabric has a right and wrong side — as most printed or woven fabrics do — place it face down on your work surface so that the side you want on the outside faces inward as you sew. This is called sewing with the right sides together and means the seams end up on the inside when the tube is turned out.
If your window is wider than your fabric piece, sew two shorter pieces together end to end before proceeding. The join will not be visible from the outside once the stopper is in place.
Sew the long seam to form the tube
Fold the fabric in half lengthways with the right sides facing each other, so you have a long narrow rectangle. Pin or clip along the long open edge to hold the two layers together. Sew a straight seam along this edge, about 1 centimetre in from the raw edge. If hand sewing, use a running stitch followed by a backstitch over the top of it — this double stitching gives the seam the strength it needs to hold the weight of the rice without pulling apart over time.
Once the long seam is sewn, sew one of the short ends closed in the same way. You now have a tube that is closed at one end and open at the other. Before turning it the right way out, trim the seam allowance at the corners of the closed end diagonally — this reduces the bulk in the corners and gives a neater finish once turned. Then reach inside the tube, find the closed end, and pull it through so the tube is now right-side out with the seams on the inside.
Push the corners of the closed end out fully using a pencil or the blunt end of a chopstick, and run your fingers along the seam to flatten it evenly before moving on to the filling.
Fill with rice
This is where a funnel is useful. If you do not have one, roll a piece of paper into a cone shape and use that — it works just as well for dry goods. Hold the open end of the tube upright and begin spooning or pouring rice in gradually, pausing every few scoops to press the rice down toward the closed end and distribute it evenly along the tube. Pouring too much in at once causes the rice to compact unevenly and can make the finished stopper lumpy and difficult to position flat.
Fill to about 2 centimetres from the open end, leaving enough fabric clear to fold over and sew the final seam without rice spilling out or getting caught in the stitching. The stopper should feel firm and heavy when full — it needs enough weight to stay in place on the sill without being shifted by a breeze or knocked out of position. A well-filled stopper for a standard 90-centimetre window sill typically uses between 600 and 900 grams of rice, depending on the diameter.
Optional: add a tablespoon of dried lavender or a few drops of essential oil on a small piece of cloth tucked into the rice before closing the end. The scent is very faint but pleasant, and lavender has a mild moth-deterrent effect as a bonus.
Close the open end
Fold the raw edges of the open end inward by about 1 centimetre so the fold aligns with the seam line of the rest of the tube. Pin or hold this in place and sew the end closed using a slip stitch — a small, nearly invisible hand stitch that joins the two folded edges together from the outside. Work slowly here and keep the stitches close together, about 3 to 4 millimetres apart, to make sure the rice cannot work its way through any gaps over time.
Knot the thread securely at the end and trim the tail close to the knot. Turn the stopper over and check both short ends from the outside — the seam should be flat and even, with no gaps visible and no raw fabric showing. If any section looks loose or gapped, reinforce it with a few additional stitches before placing the stopper in use.
Placing it correctly and making it last
Place the finished stopper along the inside of the window sill at the base of the frame, positioned so it sits snugly against the gap where cold air enters. On most windows this is the join between the lower sash or frame and the sill itself. The weight of the rice holds the stopper in place without any adhesive or fastening — it should sit flat and stay put when the window is opened and closed, though you will need to lift it clear before opening the window and replace it after.
If the stopper tends to roll or shift, sewing a flat base is an option for a second version. Cut a separate narrow strip of the same fabric, sew it along the underside of the tube before filling, and fold it outward to create a flat base that sits flush against the sill. This takes a little more time but makes the stopper significantly more stable on smooth sills.
For longevity, keep the stopper dry. Rice that gets damp will eventually spoil and produce an unpleasant smell. If the stopper gets wet — from condensation on the sill or a window left open in rain — remove it, allow it to dry fully in a warm place, and check for any signs of mould before replacing it. A removable outer cover, made separately and slipped over the rice-filled inner tube, is a practical solution if condensation is a regular issue: the cover can be washed without affecting the filling.
The stopper itself will last for several years with normal use. Rice does not degrade in a dry environment, the fabric wears slowly if chosen well, and the only maintenance required is occasionally checking the end seams and reinforcing them if they begin to loosen. When the fabric eventually wears through, the rice can be composted and the project started again with a new piece of leftover fabric — which, by then, there will almost certainly be more of.
A draft stopper is not a complicated thing to make, and that is part of what makes it a satisfying project. The materials cost nothing, the skill required is minimal, the result is immediately useful, and nothing is wasted in the making of it. The window will still let in some cold — that is a matter of the frame and the glass — but the chill that crept along the sill will stop at the seam.