Ironing Board Cover Tutorial

 

What you'll need

• Quilting fabric of your choice – See Fabric Requirements Step 1 to determine how much fabric you will need
• Iron
• Ironing board
• Wool pressing mat (optional)
• Measuring tape
• Fabric pen or marker
• Fabric scissors
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting mat
• Quilting ruler (preferably 24" long)
• Coordinating thread
• Safety pins

Directions

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

Step 1: Use measuring tape to measure the length of your ironing board. Add approx. 10" to the length of the ironing board to take into account 4-5" overhang on each end of the board.

Divide the total length by 36" and round up to the nearest ¼ of a yard. This will determine how much fabric you need in yards. If you live outside of the US and don’t use yards when you purchase fabrics, use Google’s yards to centimeters converter.

To summarize the calculation, 

 

CUTTING DIRECTIONS

Step 1: Iron fabric. With wrong side facing up, lay on clean, hard, flat surface large enough to fit your ironing board, i.e. the floor.

Remove existing ironing board cover and layer of insulation.

Open ironing board, turn it upside down and with fabric pen or marker, trace outline of the ironing board top. Remove ironing board and set aside.

 

Step 2: Use quilting ruler and mark 3" outline away from the guideline drawn in Step 1 and cut on the outer guidelines to create board piece. Set aside for Ironing Board Cover Assembly, Step 1. 

 

Step 3. Fold remaining fabric in half twice, widthwise, remove selvedge and cut:

• Three 2" strips for tie
• Three 2½" strips for loops

 

PREPARING LOOP AND TIE 

The following steps refer to 2" and 2½" strips prepared in the previous step, and are similar to preparing binding for a quilt.

Step 1: On the reverse side of each 2" and 2½" strips, draw a 45-degree angle diagonal guide line from the top left corner.

                              *2" strip used in this example.

Step 2: Join all strips to form one long 2" strip for tie and one long 2½" strip for loop, by pinning the strips at a 90-degree angle with right sides together, and the marked guidelines facing up. Sew on guidelines.

Step 3: Trim ¼" seam allowance to the outside of the sewn line. Press the seams open at all joints.

Step 4: At each end of the tie and loop, fold raw edges towards to center of the reverse side of the fabric to prevent the ends from fraying.

Step 5: Fold each of the strips in half lengthways, with wrong sides of the fabric facing each other and press flat.

Therefore, strip for tie should be 1" wide and strip for loop 1¼". wide. Set strip for loop aside for Ironing Board Cover Assembly, Step 1.

Step 6: Referring to strip for the tie, use center crease as a guide, fold raw edges of the strip towards the crease and press.

Using the center crease as a guide, fold tie in half again using the center crease as a guide. Therefore, there should be four layers of fabric stacked on top of each other.

Step 7: To complete the tie, sew approximately ⅛" from the edge to secure the four layers of fabric and trim any loose threads.  Set tie aside for Ironing Board Cover Assembly, Step 6.

 

IRONING BOARD COVER ASSEMBLY

Step 1: Start with the board piece right side facing up. With the loop strip prepared in the previous section, align the raw edge of the strip with the raw edge of the board piece. Sew ¼" from the raw edges. And don’t forget to reverse stitch at the start for additional enforcement.

Step 2: Continue attaching loop as per previous step until you get approximately 6"-8" from the start of the loop strip, and remove board piece from the sewing machine.

Step 3: Lay the board piece flat with the right side of the board piece and loop strip facing upward. Place the end of the loop strip on top of the start of the loop strip. Use a quilt ruler to mark ½" guideline past the start of the binding so the two ends overlap each other. Cut on guideline. 

Step 4: Fold and press ½" at the end of the loop strip to prevent the end from fraying.

Step 5: Check each end of the loop strip do not overlap each other. Ends of loop strip should not overlap each other as the tie will need to pass through the loop.

Attach the rest of the loop strip to right side of the board piece. When you reach the start of the loop strip, don’t forget to back stitch to strengthen your loop.

Step 6: Turn board piece with the wrong side of the cover facing up. Fold finished edge of loop over to the quilt back and sew to secure it. 

Tip: Iron the loop down to make the sewing portion less finicky. 

Step 7: Pin a safety pin on one end of tie and thread tie through the loop. Trim any loose threads to complete ironing board cover.

Step 7: Place ironing board insolation on ironing board followed by ironing board cover.

 Step 8. Tighten and tie. Tuck tie between the cover and board, and enjoy!