I recently recovered my small ironing board. It needed it pretty much since the day I got the board. The fabric was cheap and ugly to begin with, but as time went on, it got awful water stains, and it was just past time for a new one. I’m going to show you just how easy it is to whip yourself up a new ironing board cover, so you will no longer have an excuse to look at your old ugly one. Also, this is a great reason to give your husband to buy new fabric. He doesn’t want his shirts to be ironed on the old, nasty one, does he?

Here is what you will need: your old ironing board with ugly cover still intact, new quilting weight fabric (I only needed a half yard for my small board, but you will need about 2 yards for a full size board), enough batting to cover the board, a safety-pin, and some 1/4″ elastic.

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 100% all natural cotton batting, and I doubled it over, so I have two layers. I marked about 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 additional 2″ 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.

Now you can set your batting aside and iron the edge of your fabric under 1/2″ all around. 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.

A little elastic goes a long way, so estimate what you will need to go around (much less that 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. 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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