Thursday, May 20, 2010

Ironing Board Update


One day we'll own a house and one day I'll have a sewing room.  Until then I have a large dining area right off my kitchen, this serves the dual purpose of eating and sewing.  Since it sits in my dining room everything is very visible, the result has been me feeling the need to turn every day sewing items into show pieces.  This has led to such projects as the, We Built This Shelf and most recently Ned the pincushion.  This next project was the other one I'd had in mind as I headed down to Great Falls knowing it would take a long piece of fabric.



I wanted a patterned fabric that would compliment the shelf, the pink box (which I have since washed and it looks incredible.  My Mom took one look and said, "Oh, the lid is see through?) and the place mat that sits under my sewing machine (you can see a picture of the fabric here).  When I picked up this flowered  fabric my Mom thought I was crazy but she hates most fabric I choose anyway so I took that as a good sign.  Hopefully now she sees how they tie in and thinks it's as cute as I do.

Following Sharon's inspiration I pulled out the spray paint and turned my boring white legs into luscious buttercream.  Using the old cover as a guide I cut out my new fabric, sewed in a casing for my rope and then spent the next couple of hours trying to insert the stupid thing.  My fingers are sore, I bent multiple safety pins and I unpicked and re-sewed half of the cover but the thing finally made it where I wanted so I could cinch it tight on the board.  I did this project while Brad was away and I think I'll be happier if I retie the rope when someone is here to hold it so it doesn't loosen at all.  I then used my lovely new ironing board to iron out the creases in the cover.  I love the way it turned out and perhaps this will encourage me to iron clothing a little more often (okay, let's be honest... ever.)



The only sad part of this project is that by the time I remembered I hadn't taken a before picture I had already taped up the board for painting.  This picture will have to do, you ca see it leaned against the wall in all it's awful glory.  The padding was so thin I would occasionally get grid marks on my projects but this has been replaced with something much nicer.

6 comments:

Sharon@thisthriftyhouse said...

Once again you amaze me girl! I have been needing to do this for my board forever!!! I will have to give it a try now!

Mitz said...

I love it! I've used that exact fabric for peek-a-boobs. Super cute!

melissa said...

Laura,
what kind of fabric did you use? did you put any kind of heat resistant padding on your board?
I love this project as I have an old industrial sized ironing board that needs a cover very badly and I refuse to buy another iron board(they are so flimsy!). Anyway, love your blog and look forward to hearing from you!

Laura said...

Hi Melissa,
I 100% cotton for the cover, I put warm and natural underneath. It's what lots of people use for quilts, it's not very thick and it won't melt under the high heats.
Not only are new boards flimsy but they're all so ugly! You should definitely re-cover your current one, it's super easy.

You should learn from my frustration and when you re-cover yours don't make a casing for your cord, it's a pain to get it in there. Instead lay your cord on the edge of your fabric and using a large stitch zig zag over it, making sure you don't catch the cord in the stitches. Then when you're done you can just cinch it up.

DeCole said...

Did you spray paint in the house? How did you not get it all over? LOVE this idea... I have spray painted inside and have paid the price with a little mist on everything! Fun idea nad your make up board has given me inspiration!

Annie said...

I LOVE the fabric you chose for the ironing board cover! It looks beautiful now and I want to go give my ironing board a makeover.