Yarn-or-Fabric
How to Make a Big Ironing Board
Ironing boards are great. They save your furniture from being ruined by the heat and steam of an iron and they make ironing stuff much easier... having said that, ironing boards are designed for laundry, not for fabric. It's a pain to iron yardate when your ironing board tapers at one end... so fix it!!
What you'll need...
A piece of plywood the size you want your board to be
cotton batting - not polyester or a poly/cotton mix. Get cotton. You'll want one or two layers thick and it needs to be about 6-8" wider and longer than needed so it can wrap around 3-4" on all four sides
Heavyweight cotton fabric... again, cotton not poly or a poly mix. I used a cotton canvas.
Now to get started.......
It's easy peasy...
I took a piece of plywood, cut to the length I wanted and I rounded the corners so they weren't so pokey. I cut mine originally at 24x48" and found the 24" to be too deep for me so I cut it down to 18" or 20". You can cut it to whatever works for you.
What you'll need...
A piece of plywood the size you want your board to be
cotton batting - not polyester or a poly/cotton mix. Get cotton. You'll want one or two layers thick and it needs to be about 6-8" wider and longer than needed so it can wrap around 3-4" on all four sides
Heavyweight cotton fabric... again, cotton not poly or a poly mix. I used a cotton canvas.
Now to get started.......
It's easy peasy...
I took a piece of plywood, cut to the length I wanted and I rounded the corners so they weren't so pokey. I cut mine originally at 24x48" and found the 24" to be too deep for me so I cut it down to 18" or 20". You can cut it to whatever works for you.
I then took pieces of 1x2" boards, cut in to 4 pieces,
Lay your ironing board on top and mark where you should put your cut pieces of wood - I put one on each side of the length of it and one on each side of where the ironing board tapers... then nail them in place.
This picture shows how to place your pieces of wood to keep your big ironing board in place. Please ignore the fabric underneath it. I wanted to make sure everything was the right size before moving on to the stapling step :)
Lay your ironing board on top and mark where you should put your cut pieces of wood - I put one on each side of the length of it and one on each side of where the ironing board tapers... then nail them in place.
This picture shows how to place your pieces of wood to keep your big ironing board in place. Please ignore the fabric underneath it. I wanted to make sure everything was the right size before moving on to the stapling step :)
Lay your cotton material (I used stripes cause I had it in canvas and it was fun to look at) that is about 3-4" bigger than your board on each side.
Put 2 thicknesses of cotton batting on that,
Lay your board on that.
Take a staple gun and wrap around the fabric and staple... all the way on one side - then do the other side, stretching the material as you go.
Then do the short ends the same way - pulling, and stretching to get it tight. Take a hammer and hammer the staples in if needed.
You're done and you now have an awesome big ironing board that other quilters are jealous of! I know that my sewing group loves my ironing board!
This poorly lit picture shows the big ironing board on top of the iron although the ironing board is collapsed right now. No, the weight of the ironing board did not do that. It was just easier to take a picture of it that way!
Put 2 thicknesses of cotton batting on that,
Lay your board on that.
Take a staple gun and wrap around the fabric and staple... all the way on one side - then do the other side, stretching the material as you go.
Then do the short ends the same way - pulling, and stretching to get it tight. Take a hammer and hammer the staples in if needed.
You're done and you now have an awesome big ironing board that other quilters are jealous of! I know that my sewing group loves my ironing board!
This poorly lit picture shows the big ironing board on top of the iron although the ironing board is collapsed right now. No, the weight of the ironing board did not do that. It was just easier to take a picture of it that way!
