Has your ironing board seen better days? Holes, stains, thinned out areas from over ironing? Let’s fix that pronto!
Disclaimer, updating my own was on my to do list for about 6 months so … you know, don’t procrastinate like me. 😉 It literally takes just a couple hours to do.
What You’ll Need
- Your existing ironing board cover
- Fabric to replace it with (I used duck cotton)
- Batting, use natural fibers here anything poly will melt over time
- Bias binding (if not reusing from existing one)
- Elastic or cotton cord (if not reusing from existing one)
Step 1: Take off existing cover
Take off the existing cover.
Examine how it’s made and see if you want to repurpose any of it.
Remove the elastic or drawstring that pulls it in. You’ll need the true shape of the cover to create a new one.
My current one is made from the fabric that reflects the heat back up so I wanted to keep that under the new cover. I removed the binding and the elastic with a seam ripper and kept it aside to use again.
Step 2: Create your pattern
Now we want to trace the existing cover onto an new fabric. Because you’ll be binding the edges, you don’t need to worry about seam allowance but add a 1/4″ all around, just to be on the safe side.
You can also trace this on to paper if you want to reuse the pattern later. I skipped this step to make it quicker.
Cut out 2 – one from the fabric and one from the batting. Optional, finish edges.
Step 3 – Construction
If you are using the existing cover like me, this is the time to fix any holes. The pointed part of my cover had an underside piece made from the same reflective material. After tracing it off in the new fabric, I used this extra piece to cover up the holes that were all concentrated in on area.
Attach the new cover fabric to the batting and baste them together.
Like I said, I had an extra piece to attach to the underside so I sewed that piece to the main cover.
Measure out the cover, around, to determine how much bias tape you need.
Now, most people would add the bias tape along with the elastic inside the tape (kind of like a piped cord) but my coordination of getting all of that right on the first go is about the same as a monkey on a scooter! So I sewed on just the bias tape first overlapping the ends ever so slightly. This would come in handy for the next step.
Once done, feed your elastic through the binding, just like you would an elastic casing. The tool I used was this drawstring threader.
There! You’re done! Doesn’t your ironing board look sooo much better now?
Ironing Station Setup
I switched to a gravity feed iron a couple years back and love it! However it did take some work to figure out the right setup.
My ironing board came with a iron stand but the iron was too heavy for it so I would have to keep it on the board itself – loosing space to actually iron. Later I saw someone using a rolling cart as a iron holder and it looked perfect.
Now the iron and other pressing tools are in the cart; I bent the stand down out of the way. The tank is hung to a wooden coat rack so I didn’t have to drill a hole in the ceiling and be stuck in one spot. The iron is plugged to a power strip which also has a light plugged in to it. The whole strip connects to the light switch for that room, easy on and off. And the light tells me if I left the iron on or not.
Links and patterns mentioned in this post are listed below for your convenience.
Some links contained in this post may be affiliate links, which means I get a small commission if you purchase through these links and helps keep this site running. I was provided with the pattern to test it out, but all opinions are my own.
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