Last winter I identified three projects that I wanted to do to help with the temperature of my home. I accomplished two of these, replacing my dog door with a higher efficiency door and successfully weather stripling my back door. Both of these changes made a huge difference in the temperature of my dinning room and kitchen. The last project was to make a fire place blanket. I did quite a bit of searching on the internet for how people make these wholes in their houses efficient. In colder climates where the fire place is used for heat they have developed several options ranging from balloons inserted against the flue to covers for the outside to blankets. Considering most of these options I found begin in the $100 range I figured a blanket was something I could do!
Here is my fireplace a few weeks ago. Eventually I would like to replace the tile, fix the doors and change out the mantle but those are all larger projects for later.
Last year when I decided to do this project I was able to find a few people who had done something similar. A key piece seemed to be the insulation. There are several products out there but this one is a batting with a foil layer inside. The key is to build up the rh factor which is the level of cold it will keep out. This is based of what I ready about making window coverings which serve a similar function.
I also bought some black upholstery fabric but for some reason never got sewing, probably because of our lack of a real winter last year. A few weeks ago I decided I needed to finish before it started getting really cold. I quickly discovered I did not have enough fabric do ended up getting black duck cloth.
I measured the fireplace then added an inch to each length. I cut the two fabrics into this size. I decided the duck cloth would go against the fireplace since it was heavy duty. I then cut small rectangles to hold the magnets in place. This was a great opportunity to use up old thread since it would never be seen!
I then build the layers like I first started making quilts. Facing the two outside layer together then stacking the reflective batting then a layer of quilt batting. I sewed around the edge with a half inch seam leaving an opening to flip it right side out. Once it was flipped I sewed again around the perimeter to finish it and close the seam.
I bought some super strong rare earth magnets to attach the blanket, these are definitely interesting to work with and I advise caution. I left an opening on the rectangles to insert the magnets later, due to their strength I could not sew near them. They are also difficult to separate and break fairly easy. Once they break or chip they start just slicing your hands up so wear gloves!
The final step was inserting the magnets. I had planned to try to hand sew them in place but don't think that will be needed. Here is the blanket in place.
I just put it up today and was quite pleased with how it came out and the coverage. I know it is working because we decided to have our first fire of the season tonight and when I pulled it away from the fireplace the back of the blanket was really cold but the room was quite comfortable.
