I was having a friend come over and we were about to do A LOT of ironing (as I was going to show her how to make a quilt top). We both have 2 kids and they play great with each other but, they are 2 1/2, 2 1/2, 1, and almost 1. So the older ones need to be monitored as they sometimes like to pick on the little ones. In which case, we needed to be down stairs with them and not in my sewing room where I have the ironing board. I didn't want to bring the ironing board down, because I know our kids would knock it over real quick. Instead, I thought "I'll make a small mini portable ironing board and just place it on the table". That way the kids can't knock it over, pull on it, or do anything to hurt anyone or themselves!
I grabbed a long piece of wood about 3 feet long, and about a foot wide. You will need batting, a staple gun, cotton fabric, and elastic.
Heres the board I used (left over from my cutting table, my husband made).
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| It can be any board, just nothing real flimsy. You need something thick, so it won't bend. |
Grab a few layers of batting. I was using scrap batting from the leftovers of quilts, hence the variations of batting. When you cut them, make sure they are long enough to go over the edge and wrap to the back of the board.
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| Batting is long enough to wrap over the sides and onto the back (about 4-6 inches extra). |
I then start with all the corners and pull the batting over the edge and staple, with my staple gun.
Then stable to smaller ends, and remember to pull the batting at taunt as possible.
Once you have the two small ends done, work the long sides. I did the center, then the ends and then moved back and forth from left to right, until all of it was stapled down.
The back should look something like this.
I then lay my fabric choice on the ground, right side face down. I place the board top side down. I then cut the fabric with about 4-6 inches on all sides.
Make a mark where the corner of the board meets the fabric. Use a ruler to mark a two lines out to the sides. Then cut that square out of each corner. Like the picture below.
Place the two cut sides (of ONE corner) RIGHT sides together and sew.
Do that for each corner.
Then make a hem for the elastic. My elastic was about 3/4 of an inch so I needed to make about an inch or larger of a hem.
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| Fold the fabric over and pin. |
Then sew the hem along the farthest point on the left side. Leave a small hole about 2 inches wide at the start/finish.
Use a safety pin to pin the end of the elastic, and slip it through the opening in the fabric you left.
Push the elastic all the way around until it comes back to where you started. Put the fabric on your board, and pull the elastic taunt. Make sure you can remove and put the fabric on and off the board. Then pin the two pieces of elastic together. Stitch with a zig zag and or several straight stitches along the area where the two elastic pieces meet. Pull the elastic into the fabric, and sew up the hole!
Slip the cover over your board, and get to work!
Ironing away...
Now I have a mini portable ironing board for when I need to iron something down stairs, or work on small projects! Its perfect to use at my sewing table when I just have a lot of little pieces, or small hems I need to iron down. I love this project, and the best part is the cover comes off and you can wash it on gentle and clean off any gunk!
Project Time,
Sarah
