Guest Post: How to Make an Ironing Board Cover

Hi, I'm Cynthia from Dream Quilt Create.

Today, I will show you how I made a beautiful ironing board cover.  I got the idea from "I Have to Say".  

This is my lovely ironing board cover.  All my covers get these nasty brown stains.  I think it is from using spray starch.  Does that happen to you?

I went to JoAnn's and bought three pieces of Denyse Schmidt fabric.  My ironing board measures 18" wide by 48 l/2" long.  I bought 5/8 yard (22.5") of the first fabric (goes on the pointy end), 1/4 yard (9") of the middle fabric and 1 yard of the third fabric (goes on the end).  I also bought 4 l/3 yards of 7/32" cording which is found in the upholstery section.

Measure your ironing board and do the calculations. I used a l/2" seam allowance and 4" extra all around the ironing board.  It is always better to have a little bit extra than not enough.

Here are my three fabrics sewn together.  The selvages are on the sides, I sewed the cut edges together.

I laid the sewn piece of fabric on the floor, right side down. Then I put the ironing board on top of the fabric and traced 4" all the way around with a blue pencil.  It doesn't have to be extremely accurate.

Then I cut all the way around on the blue dashed lines that I drew.

Guess what?  I have extra fabric for my stash!  

Measure l/2" all the way around and press.

Zigzag close to the edge, all the way around.  Don't worry that there are crinkles around the curves.  This won't matter a bit.

Turn zigzagged seam under 3/4" and press all the way around.  There will be a few more crinkles this time, but the seam will be under the ironing board and won't show.

Stitch this seam all the way around with a straight stitch, close to the edge, leaving a 2" opening at the end (the square end) of your ironing board cover.  

I pinned a safety pin to the end of the cording.  Make sure your pin takes a good bite into the cording, or it might slip out when you are pulling it through the casing.  Push the safety pin through the 2" opening of your casing, at the end of the cover.  It will take a while, but carefully ease the safety pin with the cording, all the way around the ironing board cover.

Lay your ironing board cover on the floor, right side down.  Center the ironing board on top of it.  

Pull the cording sideways, easing the fullness around the ironing board.  Tie the cord and then tie a bow.  You can tuck the cording under the cover so that it doesn't hang down.

Now you have an awesome  redesigned ironing board cover.  This is the prettiest ironing board cover I have ever had!  It was so easy that I could even have a new cover for every season.  Not really, that sounds a little bit fussy to me........and with the prints, those nasty stains might not show up as much.  

This was a really easy project, easy enough for a beginner sewer :)