Window Wieners!

Yes. That’s right. I’ve invented something and I’m naming it Window Wieners.

I got a new sewing machine for my birthday and I’m putting it to good use. Our windows are very drafty thanks largely to an attempt to seal them shut a very long time ago. They were partially closed, nailed (partially open) to the frame, then caulked and painted. Unfortunately with double-hung windows, the top and bottom sash have to be all the way up and down, respectively, for them to seal properly. The original sash locks – like the one below – act as a wedge to help keep them together, though many of ours have been removed or replaced with modern (non-wedge) sash locks.

To alleviate some of the draftiness, I decided to apply the door sausage idea to the windows. Ta-da! Window wieners!

I wanted something lightweight, insulating (duh), and bean-like to form around the window frames. As fate would have it, I went to the fabric store and found a huge bag of bean bag chair beans…. exactly what I went looking for! That wouldn’t be so strange except that when I got up to the counter, the manager said, “Oh, look at that. We’ve never carried this before and we only got one in the other day, I didn’t think it was something anyone would ever buy.” Yeah, weird.

So I brought that big ass bag of polystyrene beads home, cut strips of ivory knit fabric left over from who knows what, and sewed them into tubes.

Then my genius husband saw the flaw in my plan of “Hmm… just fill them up?” and found the ever-useful measuring cup to help. Pshh, engineers. They think they’re so smart.

It worked like a charm! This spring we plan to address actual window repair, but for now at least we aren’t constantly living in a cold draft. That’s a win for sure!