Whew. Yesterday was tough. But everything turned out quite okay in the end. I even had a “date” with my dear friend Anna. So, moving on…
I recovered my ironing board the other day because it was dingy, and the padding was so worn down that the metal frame was leaving imprints on everything I ironed (not clothing… let me not fool you. I rarely iron clothes! :)).
First, I removed the old woven cover. I took the foam padding and used it as a guideline to cut two pieces of cotton batting and one piece of cotton fabric. (I actually layered these as I cut them out to save a couple steps.) Anyway, I cut about 3 inches wider than the foam padding all the way around. This was unnecessarily wide, and I had to trim a bit to make everything fit.
I saved the nylon string and cinchy-thingy from the old cover that made it fit around the ironing board. Then I sewed an overcasting stitch around the perimeter of my new cover (a serger could do this better, but a serger I have not). I didn’t even bother to fold over the edges (you know, since I didn’t have an ironing board to press them on), though that would have made for a nicer finish. Then I wove the nylon thread through the stitches (kind of time-consuming, but super easy) with a tapestry needle.
Finally, I layered the old foam piece, the two pieces of batting, and the new fabric cover onto the ironing board and smoothed it out. This was a little tricky, and I realized that I [still] made it much larger than necessary. But it worked. So I cinched the nylon thread as tight as possible and used the plastic cinchy-thingy from the original cover to finish it off.
And voila. It was actually much simpler than this reads, took about 30 minutes, and saved me at least a few dollars.
So what’s my Work in Progress? Cleaning the iron so I don’t ruin the ironing board again. :) And then finishing my submission to this.
And packing.
And going to Kansas City.
Um. Why am I on the computer right now?
August 29th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
hi and thanks for the comment on my MADE blog. I am in love with your website here. GREAT creations and amazing photography. You have great style. I’m adding you to my blogroll (hope you don’t mind).
As for freezerpapering….I think you can only use the stencil once. To be honest, I’ve never tried to re-iron the stencil onto another item, but I have a feeling the shiny sticky stuff would be gone? Though now you’ve got me wondering. I’m going to have to try it now.
I noticed though that you’ve done quite a bit of stenciling. Do you have any tips or good ideas? I’ve really been trying to think of a way to get more useage out of the stencil. I think the answer is…..professional silk-screening. Oh well.
Great blog and cute kids! (I have a little boy and girl too. And yesterday was a dreadful day also :) )
August 29th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
you always leave such thoughtful comments on my blog - thank you! your encouragement is truly appreciated. :)
i look forward to seeing your submission!!
August 30th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Yeah…my ironing board is leaving polka dot prints on my stuff, too. Of course, my iron is also leaving all kinds of miscellaneous things behind, too, so maybe the whole ironing thing is a lost cause. :p And who irons clothes, anyway???
(OCD?? Whatever would give you that idea?? lol)