We live in a cold climate and had a through-the-wall air conditioner.
In an effort to keep drafts out during the winter, we took rigid
styrofoam panels and glued them into a box shape, fitting over the
interior parts of the AC. We glued foam weatherstripping to the box,
where the box met the wall. I pinned an appropriate size piece of
needlework to the styrofoam, so it was decorative, rather than an
eyesore.
Susan
NJ
On Dec 4, 10, at 2:57 AM, Marjorie Wilser wrote:
Riiiight. Well, my window _fan_ needed a costume. Since I'm in a
mild winter area (coastal So. Cal), I decided to leave the box fan
in the bathroom window this year. It's not as crazy as it sounds. I
really only need it covered during the coldest couple of weeks.
Since costumers regularly sew on some pretty weird stuff, I thought
you'd all appreciate the misery of dealing with the materials of
choice.
Having had good luck and excellent insulation covering the garage
window (single pane) with a framework and staple-gunned silver
bubble film (think those cheap car window foldup shades), I decided
to take a similar approach to the box fan.
The fan is mounted in a piece of painted plywood in a double-hung
window. I'm not going to change this any time soon, as the house is
historic. The entire "box" of the fan projects inward. The proposed
design: cut the shape of the box, and cut 4" strips to go around it.
It's like making a pillow, only without the second flat side. Or
maybe a pillbox hat. Material is stiff! Assembly was a royal pain,
since the stuff is so stiff that if it runs into anything on the
table, it stops the feed dogs from helping it advance and the needle
ends up doing jumping jacks in place. I had to guide the insulating
film through the machine to avoid letting it stop, but not so fast
that I jammed it and broke a needle.
This was a 3- needle job. The third managed NOT to break :) Once
the basic pillbox shape was made, I then stitched a length of single
fold bias tape to the inside and topstitched the other side. This is
a place for a future drawstring. Beautiful it ain't <sigh>.
Test placement over the fan was perfect. I know it will keep out
drafts WAY better than the bath towel that it replaced. The look is
more high-tech than I'd prefer, since I'm an old-fashioned kinda
decorator, but WORKS is good.
Hooray for *draftless* showers!! :)
== Marjorie Wilser
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
