A Fresh New Ironing Board Cover

 Hello Readers. If you ever iron than you know how easy it is to scorch or burn your ironing board cover. Those irons get hot. It can happen to everyone but it looks pretty awful and dirty after a while. At least that was the case for me. I like to sew and that means I iron often. And that means I have burned the life out of my ironing board cover.

New ironing board, who dis?

Here is my old ironing board and my burned out cover. It looks dirty and I don't like that. I was taking this whole ironing board out of my sewing room because I got a new one.  

Look at this burned out mess I made! 

I got a new-old ironing board actually. This is actually made of wood and is vintage for sure. I don't have a makers mark but I love the way the wood looks. It is very solid and really pretty. Too pretty for that old yucky cover that I burned up. 

So here I am putting that rotten cover back on the wooden ironing board, why did I do that?? Well, I needed that padding in the cover. The padding is not just normal cushion material it is heat resistant. I am going to want that on my ironing board for sure. If I use regular batting I might regret it because it won't be able to handle the heat of a long hot ironing sessions. 

I had some pre-washed pink cotton fabric that I wanted to hide my ironing board cover. (I used pre-washed fabric so it won't bleed dye on things when I iron. Do not use polyester or synthetic fabric. It won't be able to handle the heat of ironing.) I am going to have this on top so the burn marks are hidden but the padding I need is still on the ironing board. I spread the fabric over the ironing board so that the edges of the pink fabric hung off the sides by at least 3 inches. I cut the excess off the fabric. I needed 2 inches of hanging fabric all around the ironing board. 

 

I used my sharp sewing scissors to cut all around the ironing board. It doesn't have to be cut perfectly. The edges won't show when we are done. I cut off anything more than the 2 inches hanging off the edge. You will end up with a piece of fabric that is ironing board shaped and a bit larger than your ironing board. 

 

I used elastic to finish the cover. I sewed the elastic to the edge of the fabric around all sides. The elastic will pull the edges in and gather the fabric. This is why your fabric and cutting didn't need to be perfect earlier. The edges will be gathered together with the elastic and it will hide all the imperfections. I used my serger for this step. You could also use a zigzag stitch to keep the edges from fraying and attach the elastic all in one step. Remember to pull or stretch the elastic a little as you sew. That will gather the fabric together. 

 

The elastic will shrink up and your new fabric cover might seem small but it will stretch around the ironing board and stay put when you put it on. The elastic will tighten up under the ironing board and keep everything in place. 

 

I have used this cover several times already and it is nice to have a fresh clean ironing board to use. The pink matches my sewing room really well but you can use any fabric or color you like. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making A New Ironing Board Cover

 Hello Readers. I sew often and that means I need to iron quite a bit. My ironing board was in terrible shape but it wasn't difficult to make a new cover.Read on and I will show you.

A fresh new cover might make ironing less of a chore.

This poor sad ironing board. I love to sew but I am clumsy and forgetful. I have burned and scorched my ironing board so many times. It looks awful. Let's make a new prettier cover.

I found a piece of cotton fabric that was strong and sturdy and that was a little bigger than my ironing board. I removed the burnt fabric cover from my ironing board and used it as a pattern. There was padding under the original cover. I left the padding on the ironing board alone because it was not burned. I only want to replace the fabric cover on top of the padding

 

I cut around my original cover and added an inch in size all the way around. This will give me a little extra for the seam allowance. My ironing board is smaller than the norm. If you have a standard size ironing board (It stands on the floor with it's own legs.) add 2 inches to the circumference when you cut out your new cover. The following steps will be the same no matter what size ironing board you have..

 

I grabbed some 1/4 inch elastic. I need to sew this elastic all around the edge of the new cover. 

 

As I sewed the elastic to the cover, I pulled it gently but firmly. I wanted the elastic to be stretched as I stitched along. I used a zigzag stitch to sew the fabric and the elastic together.

 

I turned the edge of the fabric over the elastic. I pulled the elastic it stretched and when it is let go it shrinks back as you can see here. This will make the edges of the new cover curl under and grip all around the ironing board. (Sort of like a shower cap.)

 

After I sewed the elastic all around the edges it looked like this. You can see the outer edge has the elastic all around and it is curling under all by itself. Those edges will curl under the edge of the ironing board and hold on to it.

 

 It was ready to go back on the ironing board. I put the new cover back on the ironing board, on top of the padding. 

I pulled the elasticized edges under the ironing board. The elastic edges curled under and that is what will keep the cover in place.

 

My new cover fit really well. The seam allowance gave me enough extra fabric to stitch the elastic in and wrap the edges of the new cover around and under the edges of the ironing board.

My ironing board might look a little weird to you. 

My ironing board hangs off the back of the door to save a little space in my sewing room. It Is basically the same as any other ironing board but it saves me some floor space. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- I loved this cover but I moved my sewing room and made room for a larger ironing board.