How about a revamp of one of my most popular tutorials? One of the most useful and most appreciated updates you can make to your sewing space is an ironing board cover because you can go wild and use your favorite prints to brighten up your space. I recently needed to recover my standard size ironing board in my studio, so I took the opportunity to give this tutorial a bit of a refresh as well. I used my Janome Skyline S9 to create this new cover for my ironing board! 

MATERIALS: 

-your old ironing board with ugly cover still intact if you have it

-new quilting weight fabric

-enough batting to cover the board twice I recommend this one  

-a safety-pin 

-some 1/4″ elastic (or 3/8” if you can’t get your hands on the 1/4” in this time of elastic scarcity)

First, you need to pre-wash your new fabric. I hate pre-washing, but I felt it was necessary for this project since I don’t want the colors to run onto what I will be ironing. No need to use detergent, just wash it in water and tumble dry. 

Next, you will lay your old ironing board face down onto your batting. I used Warm and Natural cotton batting, and I doubled it over, so I have two layers. I marked about 1-2“ all around the board so that the batting would cover the sides of the board. I hate it when the batting slides around, so the extra around the sides will help keep it in place.

Once your fabric is dry and you have ironed it out, you can place the batting on top of your fabric and mark another 2″ all around the fabric, so that once it is cut it is 2″ larger all around the batting. (the fabric in my picture needed to be trimmed down more than what you see here)

Now you can set your batting aside and iron the edge of your fabric under 1/2″ all around. I used my Janome serger to hem all the way around and used that as a folding guide because it makes it a lot easier!

Then fold it under another 1/2″ and iron it all around.

Beginning at the flat base, topstitch all the way around the cover close to the edge hem you just made so that you will have plenty of room to thread your elastic through. Stop 3″ from where you began your stitching. Its totally fine if your fabric isn’t super neat around the curves. As long as your machine catches the fabric when you stitch, and it’s somewhat even, you’ll be fine.

A little elastic goes a long way, so estimate what you will need to go around (about half of the actual distance around the board) and cut it. Attach the safety-pin to one side of the elastic and begin to thread it though the casing you made. Be careful to leave some at the end, so you can sew the two ends together. Once you have threaded it all the way through, sew the two ends of the elastic together securely with a zig zag stitch and back stitch. Topstitch the opening to the casing so that it is entirely enclosed.

Now remove that old, ugly cover from your board and throw it away. Center the batting on the board and then place your cover over the batting and secure it on the board.

Viola! You now have a fantastic new ironing board cover!

-Meredith

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