What not to do when making an ironing board cover. . .

This is what I managed to complete recently.





This was a project that I thought would be a breeze and it turned out to be so complicated. . . I made it complicated!

My ironing board looked like this. . .

and I have been meaning to make a new cover for awhile now. So I decided to get that done quickly. . .

Anyway, I wanted to try free motion quilting for the first time on this ironing board cover. I also wanted to use a velour blanket that we have had stashed in the closet for a project such as this.

LESSON 1: A velour blanket does not work well as the padding for free motion quilting. (I think this made the fabric slide as I moved it underneath the machine-- I tried pinning with safety pins etc. to prevent this.)

It started out well. . .
but the fabric starting sliding slightly. I will have to try this again sometime with the right materials!

I ended up taking all of the free motion stitching out and serging the layers together. . . (the top fabric, blanket interior, and bottom fabric). I then tried to turn the edges under to make a casing for ribbon or elastic. This was a pain too! It was really too bulky with the blanket and other layers and hard to keep straight as turning it over. After getting this done it ending up being too small-- I guess with the bulkiness of it all it lacked a little fabric to make it fit.

LESSON 2: Add a few extra inches around the ironing board if you are going to used layers like this. Also consider the option of making the ironing board pattern separately from the cover. I was tempted to start all over but ended up making a casing out of coordinating fabric to slide some ribbon through.


I really like how it EVENTUALLY turned out! :) I like the extra padding that the blanket provided and I really like that it looks so pretty now!

If you would like more information on how I put this together. . . feel free to email.