Pretty Up that Ironing Board

So, I have the most ugly ironing board cover….just like many of you out there.

How can ironing possibly be fun with an ugly cover?

I finally set out to cover that ugly thing!

Look at that ugly crusted top….ick!

Don’t throw away that old top so fast…make sure that you pull out the string from your old cover before you get started.

Take rough measurements of the old ironing board cover plus about 3″ all the way around.  Then select your fabric … if you want a little extra design look to it, go ahead and piece a section in the middle of your fabric.  I cut three strips of coordinating fabric and placed them in the middle of the two larger pieces of main fabric.

Once you have your fabric ready, lay it right side down on your table and place the old cover on top.  Cut out the new fabric roughly around the old cover with about 3″ all the way around.  It just needs to be really rough and not perfect…see my excellent cutting skills below!

Fold the edges in all the way around about 1″ and iron them down as shown below.

Now take the old string and route it into the crease / fold that you created when you ironed a fold.  Make sure you push the string all the way into the crease so that you don’t accidentally sew over it.

Set your stitch to zig zag, change your foot and sew the seam down so that you are encasing the string along the inside of the seam.  In the photo below, the string is on the far right side of the foot.  I started and ended my string at the wide end of the ironing board not at the pointy end.

Once you sew all the way around, you will have two ends of string hanging out at the eYou will want to pull the strings through and start gathering up the fabric evenly all the way around loosely.  Don’t be freaked out if it seems a little wonky and the shape is larger than the board.

Place the new cover on top of your ironing board and start to pull the strings at the base of the board to evenly gather and secure the fabric around the bottom of the board.  Pull tight and secure the strings in a knot.

Here is the ironing board close up with the detail accent stripes.

It turned out pretty good…and has brightened up my sewing room.

Happy Ironing!