Sew your own quick and easy latch cover to keep doors from slamming!
Ok, major first world problem alert, but you guys, I’m sooooo tired. And O has reached an age where, when he wakes up in the morning before us, he’s allowed to turn on his light and read books quietly until it’s time to get up. And he’s also allowed to leave his room if he needs to go to the bathroom. The problem however, is that his door only stays shut if it’s latched and he just cannot manage to do that quietly.
And that door is on a shared wall with our bedroom so when he opens and closes it, it’s loud. The mirror and art I have hanging on that wall actually rattles. Even Aa, who’s a good sleeper, hears it. So after one too many mornings of being startled awake 45 minutes early by a loud slammy door, I had enough.
I made this latch cover in about 15 minutes before O even left for school and hopefully it will solve the problem for us.
Now I know, there are tutorials out there for these things, you can even buy them on Etsy, they’re called latch covers, or door mufflers, or door jammers and they’re all pretty much the same, a thin piece of fabric with elastic loops on the end. BUT, and I’m sure we’re not alone in this, we have an old house. It’s about 120 years old to be exact. So stuff doesn’t line up exactly the way it should. There are gaps, and nothing is level. That’s just how older houses are, you know?
So the problem with these other versions of latch covers I’ve seen is that they’re all thin and they all attach over the doorknob with elastic which wouldn’t really hold the latch in that well. Which is fine if your door fits nice and tight in the frame and your doorknobs are a standard size and distance from the edge of the door.
Our door has a sizable gap between it and the frame. And it won’t stay closed or partly closed on its own because the house isn’t level. If it’s not all the way closed, it will swing all the way open. So I needed mine to be both thicker and I needed it to hold the latch in tightly. Here’s what I came up with:
DIY Quiet Door Latch Cover Supply List
1. First measure your door. Like I said, we have old doors and historic knobs. Super pretty, but not standard sizes. I determined that I wanted the finished size of my latch cover to be 4 1/2″ x 2″ so I cut two pieces of quilting fabric and 4 pieces of batting to 5″ x 2 1/2″.
2. I also cut 4 strips of ribbon that were 6″ long each. If you want, add a little fray check to one end of each to keep it from unraveling.
3. Next I basted the ribbons in place just to make things easier. Lay them out like this, and stitch a basting stitch down along the edge. Repeat on the opposite end of the fabric rectangle with two more ribbons.
3. Now it’s time to layer the pieces. First lay down the fabric with the ribbons attached right side UP. Gather the ribbons into the center, keeping them well away from the edges where you will be stitching. You can use a pin to keep them in place if you want.
4. On top of that, lay the other rectangle of fabric, right side DOWN.
5. And finally stack your batting rectangles on top. Pin around the edges.
6. Stitch around the edges with a 1/4″ seam but leave at least two inches along one of the long sides open so you can turn it right side out! Optional: I also added an additional zig zag stitch along both of the short ends to make sure that the ribbons were extra secure, you can see it in the second photo.
7. Clip the corners and turn the whole thing right side out. I’m not going to lie, this was not the easiest thing to turn because it’s so thick. Just do your best. When it’s right side out, fold in the edges of the turning opening and topstitch around the entire thing to close it. And that’s it! You’re done! Wasn’t that easy?
To install it on your door, tie one end to one doorknob, wrap it around the edge of the door, covering the latch, and tie TIGHTLY around the other doorknob. Now your door should stay shut without latching and without slamming!
If you liked this, you may also like some of my other posts…
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Adam Sullivan says
Very good DIY tips on making quiet door latch cover. Thanks for sharing this Awesome DIY idea with us.
Tom Vincent says
It is awesome DIY design. I like this design very much. Hope I can do it yourself by following some easy steps which you mention in this post. Thanks for sharing. Please keep it up!