emergency ironing board recover: a tutorial

Of all the things on my "to do" list, this was not one of them. I've always wanted to recover my ironing board, but it was never a necessity. Until today. I absolutely had to recover it.

This is not the material I would dream of when I thought of my perfect ironing board (do you ever dream of your perfect ironing board?). I had two criteria to meet in picking my fabric. 1) it had to be cheap/free, already in my stash, not wanting to be used up on any up and coming projects, and 2) it had to be relatively neutral. There is nothing worse than ironing something and getting sick to your stomach on how it totally clashes with your ironing board. But doesn't everything go with orange and yellow stripes?

Step one: take off that old cover by any means necessary!

Step two: lay down your now naked ironing board on top of some 1/2" foam. Trace around and cut.

Step three: lay your now cut foam on top of your dream ironing board fabric and add three inches before you cut.

Step four: sew under a 1/2" seam around outer edge (I did this with a zig zag to skip the folding under step of a nicer hem, but nobody's going to be looking under your ironing board are they?).


Step five: grab some string (I used cotton yarn). Thread it through the casing you just made.

Step six: position your foam on the ironing board top, then your dream fabric. Smooth and get center, then pull your string tight. This will cinch up your fabric and hold the whole thing tight.

That's it! It took about 1/2 hour, and oh so worth it!