Hey! Welcome back to Man Sewing, everybody. This is Rob and we have been reading your
comments like crazy. We love them. Keep them coming. And so many of you are asking me,
“how do I make this awesome ironing surface that I’ve got here on the set?” Now, I
came up with a crazy idea using these leftover bolts from your fabric. Yeah, right, you always
wanted to know what you could do with these because you have them in piles and piles around
the house. Well, this one, just to be clear, is got a piece of lumber in there and then
I wrapped batting around it and just basically made a pillow case.
So, I’m going to show you those steps, but just beware, this does not have cardboard
bolts in here. But I want you to make yourself an awesome, portable ironing board, using
a couple, two or three, of these. So our supplies we’re going to use is a couple, two or three,
of these old bolts. I’ve got some batting. I’m actually using a couple different layers
of batting, so two layers of thickness, about a yard and a half of any fabric. Your stash
will work perfect for that. Of course, finally, some manly sewing supplies like duct tape
and a Sharpie marker and the rotary cutter. Probably not even using the ruler much for
this one, right?
So the first key, so that I kind of measure and cut as I go with this kind of work, the
first key is to get our board set up. Look at this! I thought it would be super cool
if we made them here so that you could have them so they would accordion fold out, be
nice and secure, and slide into the pillowcase we’re about to make here. So, your first
step is to tape these bad boys together. Now, in doing that, you’re just going to work
on two at a time, and I’m not sure if I’ve already told you this or not, but I’m using
bolts from the same manufacturer, so these ones just happen to be Kaufman bolts. And
the reason is, is because I want them to be the same thickness. Not every manufacturer
uses the same thickness of the boards. So, and it doesn’t matter which side, because
these are going to flip back and forth.
Now, you only need duct tape to go from one end to the next. And I’ll do my best not
to tear this in front of the microphone so it’s not super loud, ok? So we’re just
taping this here, down. Stick, stick, stick. Tear it off there. Give it a little extra
pressure, ok? Now I’m going to flip this over and on the third board, I’m doing it
on the opposite side. Ok? So we’re just going to push that together nice, here. It
couldn’t be much easier. I don’t really want to overlap too much because I do need
to be able to make sure that accordion fold happens. So we’ve got it like that.
So the trick is to tape the other side. So we want to tape this gap so we’re not getting
sticky everywhere. So this trick, I’m kind of doing, so I have a third hand, and we’re
going to do the same thing from this side. And this is really just to keep the goo from
our super tape here from hanging on. So I’m just taping those sides, right? That couldn’t
be much easier. This would be a good thing to get your significant other involved in.
If they want to be in your sewing room a little bit with you, they can hold the cardboard
for you, right? Wouldn’t that be a fun job for that person? Ok. So we’ve got those
secured and that’s basically it, right? That’s all you need so that we can accordion
fold them because I want it to be as portable as possible for you. That’s a mouthful,
right? Ok?
Now the next thing we’re going to do, and I’ve already pre-prepped it, on this one,
we just have, basically, two layers of batting, but I like the feel of these better with two
layers on each side, so I’m going to show it to you here. I’m just going to show you
here, right now, because I’m getting all tongue tied over it. I have made already one
that has got four pieces of batting, two for each side. To get it ready to stitch, though,
you’re going to sew up one side. This has been folded, so it’s obviously larger than
the boards. Right? Larger than the boards. I’m going to slip it in from this side.
So I’ve sewn up one side and then I take my boards, slide these in here. Then, what
I want to do is, I want to push them in taut, but I don’t want to pull it too much because
I want the spring load of the batting to keep everything nice and secure, like that.
We move this a little better for you and I just kind of make sure it’s tidy. And then
all you’re going to do is, take your Sharpie marker out, mark that line, like this, and
then you might want to mark it from the other side as well because sometimes when you go
to approach the sewing machine, the girth of the batting is on the wrong side. So if
you don’t know which side you want, mark them both, so as you get to the sewing machine,
you’ve got markings just the way you want. And when I do these kinds of pillowcase fold
and sew tricks, I like to start my needle at the folded side so that I’m not pushing
a bunch of pucker or ripple down in. So if I’m coming to the machine, I’m starting
up here at the folded side. I’m going to drop this right underneath here, and I’m
just going to go ahead and sew all the way down until that’s complete. And, keep in
mind, I’m recommending you have two layers on both sides, so you’re going to be sewing
through four layers of batting. And it really is that simple.
So here is the one with four layers, just to show you what I did. There was the stitch
line that you saw. Here is the stitch line with the Sharpie inside of it, and, all we
want to do now, just to make it beautiful, is turn the right sides out. And you really
don’t have to do this; this is going to be hidden, but this is also going to act like
kind of a... actually, we were talking about it, Jake, he’s the wonderful guy that runs
the camera, you can’t see him, but I can see him right now. We were talking about making
this into a tote bag for you so you could actually have a travel supply bag that was
your ironing surface, but then we thought maybe we were getting a little carried away.
So, if you don’t think we were carried away, you should make your own ironing travel tote
bag for classes and let us know how, how it turned out.
So, this bad boy is just going to slide right here now. Fits perfect, right? And then the
last thing we need to do is get ready to go ahead and put our fabric on here. So, I was
playing around and I’ve trimmed this down and what we figured we need to do is about
two inches larger than the board itself. And I’m saying it that way instead of giving
you real numbers because not every board is the same size and you might want to make more
of these to make a larger space. So, what I am going to do, I am going to finish this
bottom edge first so that it is nice and tidy. And the way I like to do that is, I’m going
to basically do a single fold and a double fold. Kind of finger press that. And now that’s
going to go right underneath the presser foot and I’m going to just stitch this down.
And I think what I’d like to do for this one is, I’m going to move my needle all
the way over to my left hand position so I’m stitching right on that finished edge. That’s
going to make it look nice. That there, that there. We should be ready to go here. So,
let me stitch this up for you real quick.
Ok, now that I’ve got my bottom cuff made, that’s going to be the opening, right? We’re
going to go ahead and make it so that our fabric is two inches wider than our boards.
So, first of all, let’s go ahead and measure our board, right? So if I look across here,
got my finger on it, I’m at about 23 ½, 23, basically, so let’s go ahead and make
this about 25 inches wide. We want it about two inches wide and I want to be able to use
my fold over here, so I’m going to take this to 25 on my mat. Don’t usually use
my mat for the markings, but this will be just as easy this way. Just going to slide
it, real quick, so that my machine’s not in my way. We said we wanted 25. Once you’ve
started a nice long cut, like that, it’s wise to just use the cut you’re creating
to finish it out there, like that. Now, I don’t care what the mat looks like as far
as the markings go. Ok, so we’ve got that. And now we’re going to make this, so we
check it so it’s right sides together. We’re going to go ahead and sew this up the top.
And, I actually have that needle still in that left hand needle position. So this is
going to take a larger bite than a quarter inch seam allowance, and I’m also going
to backstitch at my start. We’re going to trim the top the same way when we get there;
I just want to make sure it fits perfect for us.
I also want this to be a little bit longer than my board so that if I wanted to take
it to class, I could just fold it under and make it so that it wasn’t, maybe, as unsightly
on that end. This is going to fit perfectly, by the way. I’m super excited. And I think
what I’m going to do is just grab that Sharpie marker, make my life easy. And I’m going
to take the top down, it looks like two inches or so, but, as you can tell, I’m just using
my equipment for my measurement as I work through here. Alright.
Now, let’s go ahead and sew that part up. And, for this, I’m going to still start
on my folded edge even though I’m basically sewing into a pocket on both sides. Backstitching.
Ok, are you ready for this? All the sewing is done and my fingers are going to be crossed
as I stick them in here. Now I’m thinking this is going to work best if we organize
our fabric and then we organize our batting and then we drop our boards in. Let’s give
it a try. Like that, like that.
Now, as I was saying earlier, this wooden one that’s here on the set at all times
has got the batting duct taped around the back. So, nothing’s moving. It’s not portable,
so to speak. Once you get your batting in here in place, I don’t think you’re going
to be taking the batting in and out often. Maybe just the boards so that that can be
portable. The batting and the fabric, if anything, want to kind of hold together. So, once I
get my corners organized of the batting into the fabric here, it’s kind of like monkeying
around with your duvet cover after you’ve washed your duvet cover again. Now what I’m
doing is, I’m going to put my hands in, up inside of the batting itself. See that?
Hands up inside of the batting. And now I’m kind of pushing it all around. That’s going
to be nice and taut there. Like the way it’s looking so far.
Now, the idea is, we can take our accordion boards, slide them in in the accordion formats.
So that’s nice and easy and goes all the way up to the top, right? And then, stand
them up, open one, open the other. Oh ho! It’s genius! I love it! I love it. Look
at that. So, cool thing is, is you actually have now batting on both sides so you can
iron from either side if you need it, if this got, maybe, soiled from that fusible I was
talking about, right? This is genius. Oh, I’m so excited. And the reason I did end
up going with two layers of batting is to have the smoothness. I’m not feeling the
ripples between those cardboard pieces in there. So I am super excited that you were
able to kind of watch me build this on the fly. And so while I’m creating new projects,
all I can say is, press on until next time at Man Sewing.