As a surfing sewer or a sewing surfer I know the importance of keeping my board in proper
condition. Now this ironing board is about ready for a new cover. How about that for
a tutorial today? Let’s get started.
Hey if you’ve been using your iron and ironing board properly it’s starting to look a lot
like this. This thing is trashed and ready for a new cover. And I love to put a fun cover
on it because it’s going to be hanging out in my studio. So I like to use something that
is fun to play with instead of the standard. And so this week I’m choosing the Lux from
Michael Miller. I also chose it because it’s 108 inch wide backing so you’re just going
to need ¾ of a yard. And it’s a real heavy thread count so it’s going to last for a
long time. You’re going to need some parachute cord or some sort of cording for your drawstring.
And then I love these little double cord locks so I can make a nice adjustment. We’re making
this very generic so the better the drawstring the better it fits if you know what I’m
really saying there, ok? So only other thing we’re going to need for this is the ironing
board cover, the old one. Or better yet the padding because we’re going to make our
own template using the original.
So I just take my fabric and I’m going to lay it out so that I’ve got the whole place
to work on. And then I’m going to use, like I said, the padding from my ironing board.
But the padding from the ironing board is only the size of the top. It only fits on
the top of the board. So what you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to
cut roughly a five inch perimeter all the way around. So that we can wrap it around
the edge. We’re going to do a single row of stitching to something the raw edge. And
then we’re going to do a second row of stitching to create the casing with the drawstring is
going to go into, right? So here you see it and I can either cut or trace around this.
But I just want a five inch perimeter here to create what will become the ironing board
cover.
Here you see it all cut out and you can tell it’s not perfect. This can be real rough.
Because again we have a lot of fabric to pull around the underside. But that actually makes
it nice and secure and stays fit well on our ironing board. So I’m going to get this
padding out of the way. And by the looks of it I probably should cut another piece of
polyester batting that I could put right on top of it just to put a little more life cycle
in this piece of padding, ok?
Now we’re going to be working on this so that this is the right side. So I”m going
to come over to my machine. And my first seam allowance is going to be roughly a quarter
of an inch. Ok, I’ve got a polyester thread in my machine today because I’m doing more
industrial style sewing let’s call it. And I’m just going to roughly fold over here.
And I’m getting close to a corner to show you how to handle that. So I’ve got about
a quarter of an inch fold. This is a single fold at first . And I’m going to stitch.
And then as I come around the corners I’m just kind of twisting it. I’m going to let
it wad up. I’m going to let it ripple and wrinkle. Again because this is going to be
hidden in that one inch casing. But it starts to help create that edge. Sometimes I’ll
keep a little scissor handy so I can start to pull it and twist it as it goes. And we’re
just burying the raw edge so we don’t have any fiber causing problems down the road.
Now you can start to see that working for me on that corner. Now I’m just rolling
it and twisting it. And then once I come out of the this corner I’m going to have a super
big expresso, jump into super caffeinated mode and go all the way around as we do this.
Nice and easy. Just like that. Again this might get you the sloppy sewing award for
the day. And that’s ok. Because if anyone is looking on the bottom side of your ironing
board they really aren’t your friend anyway. Ok I’m going to hit caffeination mode. I’ll
be right back for that second row of stitching.
Alright so we back stitched and we’re at the all way end. We’ve gone all the way
around with that first seam to kill the raw edge. And let me show you. This here is a
pretty decent corner. You can see it ripples a little bit as we go around. But again we’re
just going to take this and fold it over, no problem. Here’s the first corner I was
struggling a little bit more through. But even that ugly corner is not going to show.
Remember it’s on the bottom side of the ironing board. Now we are going to install
our draw cord. So I’m going to start by leaving my opening back here. I’m not going
to bother putting a buttonhole or anything in here. It’s the under side of an ironing
board cover that I will be replacing again within a year’s time. So you can put a buttonhole
if you would like. It could go right there. But I’m just going to leave a little opening.
So we’re going to start on the back end. Now this time I’m folding over enough to
get that cording through there. I don’t recommend trying to do the cording while you’re
sewing. It’s just too much to keep track of. I do have a little edge guide that I’ve
clamped there with a magnet to my bed of my machine. And I’m going to do a definite
backstitch. A couple of them as a matter of fact because that‘s going to be the entry
for where the cord goes through. And now I’m just going to, one more time, start working
my way around here. Keeping a nice equal distance to feed that draw cord. The corners will be
a little prettier. They won’t be awesome but they will certainly be functional. And
I’ll be right back with that done and show you how to get that draw cord in there.
Now as I’m coming into this end here I’ve got about a two finger opening I’m going
to leave. So I’m just going to come up a little bit closer. And again backstitch myself
several times so I can put good pressure on that. And I probably should have pointed out
because you all think I’m a professional out there but you’ll see that I really butchered
the nose of my cover. But you know what, again we just have to be able to slide our cord
through there. This is not going to show. So if you’re struggling on some of those
corners, hey either teach me how to do it better or don’t worry about it yourself.
Because it’s going to totally work. Watch this.
We’re going to get ready for our draw cord next, ok? So down on my opening here I’m
going to take my draw cord and I’m going to want a lighter so I can melt it at the
end. I want my little clippy handy here. And then I’m also going to want to get myself
a safety pin and run this up through just like if it was my sweatshirt cord, you know
that had come out in the dryer. One of my tricks is to get that cord completely loose
though so it doesn’t tangle up as I’m going. So what I’m going to do is put a
safety pin on the end, string this bad boy up and show you how to finish it.
So I’ve almost made it all the way around my ironing board cover. Not too difficult
at all. Even those wadded up corners, right? And you can see I’ve been wearing my cable
or my cord around my neck. And what I’m going to end up doing as I pop this out is
I’m going to first remove my safety pin that I’ve got, ok? So I’m going to take
this off. And then I’m going to take the cord lock and I”m going to slide it down
on this one end first. And this is going to help me keep track of everything. I’m going
to stick that through there like that and I’m going to give myself a couple of inches
something because I’m going to still tie this at the end. Now that I’ve got a hold
of this I can give myself more slack because I want to be able to extend all of the cord
all the way through so that it’s totally fit nice and open. We’ve got a lot of material
here. And so by being able to have this cord lock down here I’m not unpacking it and
taking the drawstring right back out that I just put in. We don’t want to do that.
Ok and I’m coming around using my elbow to kind of secure back behind me here. So
this just takes a little bit of work but nothing difficult, ok? And that package of parachute
cord is certainly plenty. You will have a little extra left over. I’ve got a really
fun yarn caddy out there that uses that parachute cord too. So you might want to keep that handy.
Ok, so now what I’m going to do because I can see I’ve got a little bit of gather
there still around here is I’m going to give myself about eight or ten extra inches
over here. And first I’m going to cut this. And then if you don’t know polyester or
nylon cords can be melted and should be melted so that they don’t continue to unravel.
So what I’m going to do is I’m going to secure that, ok? So I’ve heated it, that’s
hot. Kids that are watching at home you must have your parents help you with this, please,
please, please. And then I’m also going to make my leftovers good too while I’m
at it. So I’m just going to heat that for a few seconds. Let it cool briefly. Give it
a little roll and that will secure it and make it easier to put into the cord lock later.
Ok, so now I’ve got my cord lock here. And this will be fun because I pre cut this ironing
board cover. Like I said kind of generic, at home. This ironing board cover was here.
So let’s see if my generic ironing board actually fits on this actual board behind
me. First I want to secure this. So one last little knot back here so it doesn’t get
away from me. And then I can pull that all the way to the back because I want to be able
to fit this here. So we’ll start on our nose and we’ll bring it around. Let’s
see if we can do this for all of us. Let’s see, will that fit on our table ok? Ok, perfect.
A little on demand here. Ok so you see I’ve got plenty of fabric and plenty of edging
to go all the way around just like this. And then I come underneath and I start to take
my draw cord. And I cinch it up, cinch it up nice and tight. Look how great that fits.
Nice and secure all the way around. Let me spin this just slightly. I’m not sure if
you can see what’s going on down here or not but I’ve got all that cording. Now I
can cinch this up nice and tight like that and then I’ll either take this cord and
tie it up under the bottom or if I really knew that was going to go on once and never
come back off I could trim that back down and use the cord again for something else.
I’m not that cheap. I’m going to leave it right where it’s at. Because I want to
get back to my other sewing projects now that I’ve got this wonderful new crisp and clean
ironing board cover. So what we need from you in the comments today, I want to hear
about your best ironing disaster. What were you working on when things didn’t go so
well. And you now are happy to have this awesome ironing board cover tutorial right here at
Man Sewing.