Not even on my list!

Oh my goodness have things been crazy around here!  With my daughter and my niece graduating, my Mother’s birthday and the usual end of the school year activities, it has been nuts!  Lots of fun and wonderful people, but frenzied.  My sewing “To Do” list is growing longer by the day and has been largely ignored for the past two weeks.

So what do I do in the middle of all this craziness?  I end up making a new ironing board cover 🙂  Not even on the list!  The small hole in the middle of my old one had become a large hole and it was time to replace it.  So I threw it out and bought a new one at JoAnn (50% off!).  It doesn’t fit.  Those of you who have purchased new ironing boards in the past few years may have noticed that the standard ones have gotten thinner – now 13″ instead of 15″.  So I bought a “deluxe” model that is 15″ wide.  It has the iron stand on the end.  The problem – it is only 51″ long, not the standard 54″.  The bigger problem – JoAnn and Bed, Bath and Beyond (where I bought the ironing board) don’t carry a replacement cover in this size.  The standard ones are too long and the iron stand on the end of the board prevents tightening them enough to fit smoothly.

So, inspired by Yahaira, I decided I’d just have to make my own.  I made mine very simple.  I flipped the ironing board upside down and traced the outline on a piece of batting.  Then I cut out along the traced edge and placed the batting on top of the orange fabric (how I wished I could have ironed it first :)).  I marked a line about 2 1/4″ outside the batting edge.  Then I made a 1/2″ wide casing, put some cording through it and put it all on the board.  It seems to be working fine so far.  It only took me about an hour – probably less time than it took to buy two covers at two different stores and return them :).

(The fabric squares on my design wall behind the ironing board are for the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild Robert Kaufman No Prints Allowed challenge – my highest priority sewing as it is due June 29.)

5 Comments
  • Victoria
    Posted at 14:16h, 09 June Reply

    Never thought to make my own, and the orange fabric is perfect!!

  • Liz in Ypsilanti
    Posted at 16:20h, 08 June Reply

    This is such a good idea! Thank you for the instructions. I LOVE the burnt orange of the cover, and the blocks on your wall look interesting.

  • Natalie
    Posted at 15:39h, 07 June Reply

    What a great, bright ironing board cover! It is funny how those little projects can sneak up on you, especially when there's a lot going on! Sounds like you've been busy, and graduations are always an exciting time. I'm excited to see your kona challenge quilt at the next guild meeting!

  • Lynne
    Posted at 13:24h, 07 June Reply

    I love my ironing board cover – I just love the fabric print. The plaid checks help me block small knitted items and I can pin through the mesh ironing board. But the cover is looking the worse for wear and will need replacing soon. My ironing board is 33 years old and I can't get covers to fit. I had to sew tapes on mine to tie it on to the board securely!

  • yahaira
    Posted at 13:11h, 07 June Reply

    haha that's what happened to me! I bought the board at bbb but then I couldn't find any covers that would work! what the heck? I'm jealous of your bigger board though (ok, that sounds weird lol)

Leave a Reply