Bored With My Board Cover

Do you know what today is? Today is a very special day around here. It was the first day of school for munchkins 1, 2, and 3. It is also the birthday of Bored or Bananas {BOB}. I am oh so excited and equally nervous!

Let's get right to it. Shall we? I am in the beginning stages of a laundry room makeover. Yep. The laundry room. It is off the entryway of our home and we the kids tend to leave the door open every time they go in there. No biggie, right? It's a laundry room. How often do kids actually go in there? All of the time! Our laundry room is also our pantry. It is also a walk through to our walk-in closet that houses all of our outdoor gear, shoes, and such. It's very functional, but that is about it. So, I am on a mission!

The first project on the list? A new ironing board cover. The last one is 13 years old, burned in spots and over all just Eewie! Want to know how to make one? Well, I will tell you. It is easy peasy!

Supplies:
2 yards of 100% cotton fabric pre-washed and dried
bias tape {enough to go all the way around your cover + a couple of inches for overlap}
matching thread
mason twine or elastic

First thing first. Make sure you wash and dry your fabric! This is important if you ever want to wash your cover in the future. The first time you wash it will shrink by about 10%. Next, open the fabric all the way and lay it face up on a large surface. I used the floor. :) This helps with lining up the pattern on the fabric so it will be straight on your board. With your fabric opened up you will be only cutting through one layer of fabric. Lay your old ironing board cover on top of your new fabric. This will be your sewing pattern.

My old cover was a bit small and moved around on my board a bit. To remedy this I added 2 inches all the way around my cover. I used my quilting ruler and a sharpie. You won't see the marks when it is finished. I promise! {If you don't have this problem you can cut it at the same size.} Cut out your pattern on your markings.

Next up we will be pinning on the bias tape. Bias tape is simply fabric that is cut on a 45 degree angle to make it stretchy. It makes sewing around a curve a breeze. We will also be using it as the casing for drawing our cover tight on on our board. Bias tape is wider on one side than the other. There is a reason for that! I'll show you in a bit.

Open your bias tape all the way and pin the right side of the widest part of the tape to the wrong side of your cover fabric. Start at the back end of your cover. Like this:

But first fold over a small section {a 1/4 inch or so} to give you a nice finished edge. I forgot to get a pic of that. Dang! We live and learn. I tried to upload a pic showing you where to fold, but blogger doesn't like it. So just imagine a dotted vertical line 1/4 inch from the edge of bias tape that says "Fold here!" Finish pinning all the way around stretching a bit around the curves. When you get back to the beginning of your pinning fold over your fabric again so that it just butts up evenly. Sew the tape down using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

When you are finished it should look like this:

Yeah! We are almost done! Just a couple more easy steps to go. Flip your cover around so that the pretty side faces you. Starting at the back side again where you first started attaching your bias tape double fold it over the front making sure to cover the stitches where you attached the bias tape. Pin. Pin. Pin some more until you have worked your way all the way around the cover. Sew it down using a small seem allowance. You can use a little bigger seem allowance than I show you here if you don't feel comfortable with such a small allowance. The bias tape is wider in the back so that you "catch" all of the layers of fabric on this step. Flip it over and double check that you caught the back side of the tape.

We are all done sewing!!!

Next we will thread our twine or elastic through the bias tape casing. Some people tie their twine around a safety pin and some people have one of those fancy tools. Not me. I make do with what I have. I cut a piece of floral wire, folded it half and wrapped it in duct tape to protect my cover from snags. Gotta love duct tape!

Tie your twine or elastic to the threadymajig {it's a word!} and insert it into the opening in the bias tape at the back of your cover. Work it through until you have come out the other side and it is even all the way around. Leave lots of extra for tying and snip it off. If you are using elastic don't let go! You will lose it inside the tape and will have start over again. If you need to, pin it to the tape.

Put your cover on your board and pull tight! If you are using elastic tie it in a tight knot and tuck the ends in. If your using twine just tie it. Smooth out your cover if there are any wrinkles and Voila! A brand new custom ironing board cover. Now Pat yourself on the back. You deserve it!

Hmmm...Now what to do with the other side of fabric? I think may have a few tricks up my sleave. ;)

Till next time,
XOXO ~Jaime

P.S.
I'd like to thank my Grams and my junior high Home Ec teacher, Mrs. Carpenter for teaching me the basics of sewing. It is one of my favorite pastimes! :)

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