Door silencer for baby's nursery

As we prepare for Lil' Biddle's arrival (his due date is in 1 week!), we're in the final steps of getting the nursery ready for our little bundle of joy! I've seen these "door silencers" on etsy and Pinterest, and figured I could easily make our own...it was a breeze and used scraps of fabric I already had on hand...so the project was FREE!

Here's how I made mine:

What you need:

• 2 scraps of fabric (3" x 4" each)
• scrap of light interfacing, 3" x 4" (optional)
• 2 new hair rubberbands

Instructions:
Step #1: Cut 2 rectangles from your fabric: both should be 3" x 4"

Step #2: Cut a 3" x 4" rectangle of interfacing and iron it to the wrong side of one of the fabric rectangles. If you don't have interfacing, you could cut a 3rd rectangle of fabric to help increase the thickness of the door silencer.

Step #3: Pin your 2 rubberbands to the short sides of your interfaced rectangle, as shown in the picture below. Make sure you're pinning on the *right* (patterned) side of your rectangle. The larger loop of each rubberband should be on the interior of the rectangle. (only a small amount of the band should be hanging over the edges).

 

Step #4: Pin together your 2 rectangles, right sides together (patterns should be facing each other). The rubberbands will be covered up, but you'll be able to see the small loop of the bands sticking out of each short side.

 

Step #5: Using your sewing machine, sew with a 1/4" seam allowance along 3.5 sides of the rectangle, making sure to leave a gap large enough to turn the fabric right side out. Use a chopstick or capped pen to push your corners out.

 

Step #6: Now that the piece is right side out, iron it completely flat, making sure that the area where the open gap is, has edges that are turned under. Pin the gap closed and sew a 1/8" straight finishing edge around all 4 edges of the rectangle, sewing the gap closed and leaving a nice finished edge.

 

I made 2 of these in about 20 minutes...it would take even less time, now that I know what dimensions work well!!:

Step #7: Wrap each rubberband around each side of your doorknob, like so...

...and you've got yourself a door silencer! No waking the baby when you open and close the door :)

I've also read that these work well to prevent little toddler fingers from getting slammed in the door in later years...

Here's what it looks like with the door closed:

...and when the door is open:

 

Here's hoping our lil' Boy is a good sleeper...and this little door silencer will allow me to peek in on him, without waking him, during naptime!