I decided to re-upholster my ironing board and add some extra cushioning. I bought 1 metre of polysester wadding from Sew Essential, as I'm planning to use it for several other things. It was a huge amount when it arrived, and I have lots leftover.
I haven't had this ironing board long, the cover isn't covered in iron stains yet, but I thought it would be a good idea to add some extra wadding as I've noticed it feel a little thin recently. On the spur of the moment I also decided to make a new cover as I have some lovely African Wax Print cotton in my stash big enough for this project. My mum gave it to me a few months ago and I have been meaning to use it somehow in a soft furnishing.
My ironing board is often left out for days in our sitting room so it would be nice for it to be more visually appealing and also go with the wax print cushions on our sofa.
Extra padding
I took off my current ironing board cover and foam piece. Place your foam shape onto the wadding and cut around it to create a duplicate. I used both pieces to add extra firmness, placing the wadding on top. (My wadding is double folded here just for ease of fitting it on my floor, I only cut through one layer).
Ironing board cover
My current cover attaches onto the ironing board with a cord threaded through a see-through channel that runs around the perimeter. This cord is then pulled tight and knotted. It doesn’t make for a very tight cover and recently has been on the move.
I've made a different style of cover to the original. My cover is made from two pieces and I'm using elastic to help it fit well.
The elastic sits in a channel made by creating a deep hem around most of the cover. At the narrowest end, I made a "pocket" for the board to slide into and sit tightly in by sewing a smaller piece of fabric right sides together with my main cover.
1. Cut out the fabric
Don't forget to pre-wash your fabric.
Lay your current cover onto your fabric to prepare to cut around it. I took the cord out of mine to get it to lie flat around the curved corners.
Draw around the cover 5cm away from its edge. I added this extra because I'm going to be folding my raw edges under to make the channel. The elastic I am using is only 2cm but I want some extra width so the elastic can fit comfortably underneath the board.
Cut out your fabric.
Once cut, I folded my piece in half horizontally to double check that particularly the narrowest end was symmetrical, it wasn't so I trimmed down one side.
2. Making the "Pocket" (your second piece)
I had already decided how far along the Main Cover I wanted my Pocket piece to start and popped a pin to indicate this.
Take a look at the underneath of your ironing board. You want the Pocket to be fairly deep so that it really anchors the cover, but you also want it to stop before it hits any part of your ironing board that sticks out far.
I placed the narrowest end of my Main Cover over my fabric and cut around it, adding some extra length to the straight end so I can fold over the raw edge and hem it.
Hem the straight raw edge of your Pocket by folding it over twice. It's helpful if the width of this hem matches or is bigger than the width of some elastic that you can sew onto it at the end. It doesn't need to be as wide as the elastic for the Main Cover.
4. Join Main & Pocket together
Pin the Pocket onto the Main Cover right sides together & matching curves.
I then put it on my ironing board to see how big my seam allowance needed to be for it to be a snug fit. I used a fabric pen to draw the outline the board edge and followed this when I sewed, not sewing on the line by just to the outside, using half my presser foot as a mini SA guide.
Sew your two pieces right sides together following this marking. My seam allowance turned out to be 5-7cm at various points around the curve.
Put it on your ironing board to check it's snug enough.
5. Making the elastic channel
Have your cover wrong sides out.
The elastic channel will only be going around the portion of the cover that doesn't have the Pocket.
Press under the raw edge of Main Cover 1cm but only the part of the cover that is not sewn to the Pocket- as we will be finishing the raw edge of our Pocket piece in a different way later.
To find the right direction to press the raw edge under: place your ironing board cover with the Pocket facing down (so you can't see it).
Fold the newly pressed edge over again to make the channel. To find by how much to fold it over again, fold the edge over to meet the Pocket seam. Fold the pressed edge of Main Cover like so all the way around.
More detailed instructions on folding the channel:
This is what "the underneath" of the cover currently looks like turned right sides out (Pocket side facing up):
You now have a giant seam allowance created by the Pocket.
Here I have folded the channel to show you what it will end up looking like from the right side once it is made:
Now I have turned the cover wrong sides out again to work with it.
Fold your channel to meet the point where your Pocket seam sits (highlighted by yellow pencil).
I also folded over both parts of the seam allowance of my Pocket because I will be anchoring the end of my elastic into here and I want it to have as much support as possible to keep that elastic in place. Below I have folded both parts of the seam allowance over to the same side and pinned in place.
When you come to the two curved corners at the end it will be tricky, but fold it over and try to replicate a curve while making sure you will have enough of a channel for your elastic to pass through.
Toptstich your channel down all the way around starting where the Pocket ends.
Start sewing here (see photo) leaving the short edge open so that you can insert the elastic. Make sure that you fold the raw edge of that extra Pocket SA under so that the channel is neat and encased.
Do this too the other side too.
10. Finishing the seam allowance of the Pocket
Cut into the excess seam allowance of the Pocket just next to where you started/stopped sewing the channel. Do this on both sides.
You can now more easily see the entrance into your channel. Before inserting the elastic we are going to finish that giant seam allowance and raw edge of your Pocket.
Trim the SA down to 1.5cm all the way around, cutting into it down that short edge of the channel.
We are going to faux French seam it by folding each seam allowance in half in on itself and edge stitching it shut. You'll need to snip into the seam allowance just next to the elastic channel again in order to do this. You might want to reinforce the original seam of the envelop flap here to make sure the seam does not weaken, as it will be pulled snug over the board.
Fold the SAs in by pressing and edgestitch closed.
12. Inserting elastic
Now insert your elastic into your channel, the length of which will depend on the width and length of your board.
You can measure this roughly by placing your cover over your board and holding your elastic from where it will be inserted (at the end of the envelope flap) and take it around the perimiter being sure to stretch it.
Use a safety pin and thread it through, making sure that you don't twist it.
Once through, anchor the elastic in place at the ends with pins. You want to pin it at the opening of the channel so that its raw edge nearly meets the raw edge of the channel opening, but not quite. We want the elastic to be hidden.
You also want to position the elastic so that it sits on the outer side of the channel; butting up against the fold, as oppose to a central placement or up against the channel seam. My channel is bigger than my elastic, which is why I need to position it like this.
Making sure it's securely pinned in place, check it fits your board.
Sew the elastic in place, sewing over the channel opening in a rectangle with a criss cross in the middle.
Now you can finish the raw edge of the channel opening with a zig zag stitch.
13. Securing the channel to the Pocket
Sew the channel onto the Pocket hem to get rid of that weird step shape and make sure that the channel will sit in place and hug the board.
With the cover inside out, fold the channel over onto the Pocket hem.
You want to topsttich the channel to the Pocket over your box cross area that you’ve just sewn. Don't sew through to the Main cover though!
I sewed this from the right side to make it neater and to also make sure that my Pocket hem was pulled tort and perpendicular to the elastic channel:
14. Extra elastic on the Pocket hem
After trying it on, I decided to topstitch some elastic to the Pocket hem to help it fit better.
I used narrower elastic from my stash that was no wider than the width of the Pocket hem. I sewed the elastic onto the wrong side of hem.
Before you sew the length of it, anchor the elastic in place with some backstitching in straight stitch at the very edge.
Then using stretch stitch, and stretching it as much as possible, sew it along the hem. When you reach the end, anchor it again like you did at the beginning.
Trim the elastic at both ends close to this line of anchoring stitches.
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