Sewing Ironing Board Covers

Apologies, but this is going to be a photo heavy, boring post about sewing ironing board covers...

I've noticed heaps of tutorials for sewing ironing board covers in the past. I never read them with much interest. I like sewing dresses not inexpensive practical stuff, or so I thought! I mean, I sew my own knickers now - and I love it. On Saturday I found myself cross at my badly fitting Elisalex dress (I'll blog eventually) and needed a quick pick me up. The stained cover on my Ikea mini ironing board was driving me bananas, so I decided to replace it. I could have looked at any number of tutorials, but I decided to wing it instead.

The finished product, and the naughty Elisalex dress. 

First I unpicked the my old cover. It had a round of thin elastic sewn into a casing. I removed the casing and noticed that the elastic was in great nic so I could re-use it. I used the the unpicked scummy cover as a pattern for my new cover. 

The recycled elastic

I decided to make two, this way I can swap them over regularly to pop in the washing machine. I cut one out a quilting cotton (red and black diamond pattern) and the other out of some bright pink linen.

I used the recycled elastic in the pink cover. I didn't want to cut the elastic in half prior to insertion as it was already the perfect size for the cover. I cut a long strip (around 2"wide) of a contrasting fabric for the elastic casing. I attached the casing right sides facing to the cover with the elastic inside the casing. As I sewed around the cover I pulled the elastic tight towards me.

 It looked like a giant shower cap upon completion, but fit perfectly.

 For the second cover I used some wide bias binding for the casing and piping cord to tighten the cover around the board. I first made up the piping as you would normally, but making sure not to sew over the cord as it needs to be loose to tighten properly. I then attached the casing right sides facing to the cover, finished the raw edge and that's it.

 

I popped it on the board, tightened and tied a bow.  

That's two new ironing board covers made in around an hour or so. Now that I know they're so easy to make I'll be on the look out for some sewing themed fabric or perhaps polka dots to match my chair.