Who Irons?

     I hardly ever iron.  Most of our clothing flops around in the dryer for fifteen minutes before I put it on a hanger to finish drying.  When something has to be ironed, I drag out the 1970's ironing board. The cover, also from the '70's, has seen better days.  I thought it might be time to get a new board, but the old one was nice and solid.  The cover was really the only part that had to be replaced, but I didn't like any of the replacement options I saw.
     I'm crafty, so I decided to make an ironing board cover.  Here's how it went:

I bought some quilted fabric - off white cotton on both sides, polyfill in the middle.  I traced around the edge of the ironing board.  Be sure to iron both sides of the quilted fabric before tracing.  If you don't iron, the fabric will stretch out and end up being too big.

I cut a piece of cardboard to 5/8" width and used this to add a seam allowance to the shape I had traced.

I laid the quilted piece on the 100% cotton print I selected for the cover.  I didn't use a poly-cotton blend because synthetics can melt at high ironing temperatures.  I cut around the quilted layer leaving a generous edge.

I pinned the layers together, then sewed them together 1/2" from the edge of the quilted layer.  Next I trimmed the cotton print to match the quilted layer.  The top of the cover is ready.    

Now I cut out two strips that will cover the sides of the ironing board.  I joined the strips and made a casing along one side.

I placed the seam where the two strips were joined at the center, front point of the cover.  With right sides of the printed fabric together, I pinned, then sewed.  I did not complete the back edge of the cover.  The side strips were extra long, so they required adjustment before finishing the side strip and casing.

I turned the edges back so that the two sides just met and finished the casing.  I covered the raw edges at the casing opening with a strip of extra fabric.  I didn't want to see any frayed edges at the casing opening. 

From the top, it's all neat and finished.

I strung a cord through the casing.  You could use elastic, or you could sew a tie using left over fabric to match the cover.  The cover is done, but I decided to do one more thing.  

I picked these up during the '70's.  The stretched out elastic has a suspender clip on each end.  Their purpose was to hold the sides of the cover snug.  I was going to throw them out until I saw that I could pry up the metal tabs that held the elastic in place.  I removed the old elastic and inserted some new pieces.

Good As New

The Underside

I'll have to iron something someday.