Pressing Matters

Guess what this is?  It's quilted, made from some of my favorite sewing print fabrics, and I use it every day.

You guessed it--it's an ironing board cover.
I hate ironing clothes.  When I was a young teenager we had to iron everything, even my Dad's pajamas and handkerchiefs.  After I was married, my husband had a couple of cotton shirts that needed to be ironed, and I have to admit they spent more time in the ironing basket than they did in the closet.  I hardly ever iron anything any more--unless it has to do with quilting.
Somehow, I actually like pressing quilt blocks.  It's the finishing touch.  I finger press at the machine, and then press with the iron when the whole block is done.  The blocks look crisp and neat after pressing.
But I have never had an ironing board cover I really liked.  Even when I spent decent money on them, they were just so cheap--thin fabric, thin insulation, no lining, and the last one I had even used a cheap see-through nylon for a casing for the cheap string that held it on the board.  Which I did not know until I got it out of the package.  Yuck.
We're making over a bedroom for a sewing room, and I wanted to have a nicer ironing board cover, especially since the old one was falling apart.

I used some of these wonderful sewing themed fabrics to make it.  I've been hoarding these for years, especially the ones with the lovely black sewing machines on them.

This one came from Ebay.  There are treadles and electrics on it.

This one is more recent.

Here's one with notions, and a large trade card for Clark's thread.

I think I've been saving this one a long time.  1993?

I added some red fabrics, because it seemed like I needed them.  I cut the fabrics into 4.5 in. squares, and sewed them into a long narrow quilt top 6 squares wide and 15 rows long.  (I didn't take pictures of the process, because I wasn't sure it was going to work.)  I pieced it on my Singer 15 treadle.

I took some ideas from this web page:
Moda Bake Shop: Quilted Ironing Board Cover
although I didn't follow the pattern.  I wanted elastic in a casing instead of a ribbon.

Mine is more like this one, although still not quite the same:
Desiloop Quilted Ironing Board Cover

After I made the long narrow quilt top, I layered it with cotton batting and backing, and quilted it in the ditch on my new Pfaff.
Then I trimmed it into an ironing board shape.  I used what was left of the old cover as a kind of pattern, but I cut mine about 2 inches wider on each side.
I made my casing from some wide cotton bias tape I had in my collection, adding it like a binding on the front, and stitching it to the back by machine.

Once I had that sewn, with an opening in the end, I inserted 1/4 in. wide elastic, just like I would with a pair of pants.  It took a while.
When I had it nice and tight, I tried it on the ironing board, and was amazed that it fit PERFECTLY.

This is what it looks like underneath.  The elastic really grips the board, and the cover is not going anywhere (unlike my last one that kept sliding off [sound of teeth grinding]).

I've been using it, can you tell?  There's some thread from a current project lying there.

Pretty and functional, used only stuff I had on hand, and didn't take long to make.
Now that's my kind of project!

Happy treadling!