Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Easiest Ironing Board Cover Ever!

So... on Mother's day, I not only made these oven mitts for my mom-- but I also made a little something for myself...

An ironing board cover!

Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!


My iron seemed to have stomach bug and would randomly spit up gross brown water all over my ironing board cover. I was able to cure the iron, but my ironing board cover was hopelessly stained. So I whipped this one up while my kids were out getting breakfast on Mother's Day morning. (Yes, at the same time I did those oven mitts-- they are both crazy quick projects)

I looked at some tutorials online, but all of them required flipping the board over, tracing etc. And who wants to do that on her day off? So I came up with this super easy way of creating an ironing board cover that honestly takes only 10 minutes and a couple yards of fabric. This cover simply goes over your old cover as an additional layer.

Before we begin; a confession: You'll notice that there is no before picture. That's because my ironing board cover was too disgusting even for the internet. Just use your imagination.
Materials:
2.5 yards of 1/4 inch elastic
Fabric (2 yards of cotton or cotton-linen blend)
3 yards of 1 inch Bias tape or 2 inch bias strips (premade or store bought)

First, fold your fabric in half and drape over the ironing board as shown. The fold should be at the center of the ironing board; and the fabric should hang over the ironing board by at least 3 inches on either short end.

Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!

Then, without tracing, flipping or measuring, trim both layers of fabric roughly 3 inches from the edge of the table.  When you get to the narrow portion of the table, just follow the curve as best you can.
Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!

Now for the fun part! We are going to use the bias tape to make a quick casing for the elastic. Fold your bias tape in half, wrong sides together so the raw edges are touching. Line the raw edges with the *right* side of the cover fabric and sew or serge almost all the way around the cover. Leave a 2-3 inch gap to thread the elastic through.

Observant readers might notice that I did it wrong in the photo. Unobservant little old me, didn't notice until I was halfway done, so I just left it. This part will be underneath the ironing board, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Thread the elastic through the gap in the casing, and put it over the ironing board. Once you give the elastic a good tug, the cover will look like you spent hours on it.
Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!

Smooth out any wrinkles, and tie off the elastic underneath the table.
Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!

The cover looks so cheery, and it even looks matches my dining room where I've been doing most of my sewing.
Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!
 And it makes pressing out my projects that much more fun! Hello there Sprocket Pillows!
Make an ironing board cover in 10 minutes, without flipping, tracing or measuring. Tutorial by Make It Handmade!


If any of you have been putting off making a cover-- I hope you give this a try! As always, if you like these tutorials-- please consider subscribing (using RSS), signing up for emails, or following using blogger!

4 comments:

  1. I don't know why your version of making an ironing board cover, hasn't replaced all the other ones. I made one last year and now I'm going to make another, because I want to and it's fun. Ingenious idea. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know why your version of making an ironing board cover, hasn't replaced all the other ones. I made one last year and now I'm going to make another, because I want to and it's fun. Ingenious idea. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you. I have been wanting a new ironing board cover without paying the prices I've seen. Your version is so doable! I keep my ironing board in the kitchen, and I confess it occasionally doubles as an island. Not good but now I can make a removable cover for the real purpose of an ironing board.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can find every option but the friendly printer option which I need to make this. Why is this option no there?

    ReplyDelete

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