Please don’t judge me.

I’m about to show you my sewing secret.

I have the worst looking ironing board. The cover isn’t even that old but I guess using it almost daily with all my sewing has had a toll on it.

Even Buster is a little disgusted with me over this.

When I came across this beautiful cheery fabric on the Minerva website, I knew immediately it was time to update my ironing board cover.

This is a quick project that can easily be completed in the afternoon. All you need is two meters of cotton fabric and the same amount of 1/4 inch or thicker elastic.

First thing is to lay your fabric down on a flat surface and place your ironing board over top. If you are lucky, you will have a helper to hold down your fabric for you.

Next, trace around the ironing board using a five inch allowance. 

And then cut out the fabric using the pattern you just traced.

Create a 1/2 inch fold around all sides of the cut fabric and press with a steam iron. Then fold fabric up another 1/2 inch and press to create a nice finished edge.

Sew the seam to create a channel for the elastic making sure to keep a one inch opening to insert elastic.

Feed elastic through the edge you just created. I pin a safety pin to the start and use that to guide the elastic through. Take care to secure the other end so you don’t accidentally pull it through.

Before you secure the ends of the elastic together, place new cover on the ironing board.

If your new cover is darker in colour that the previous, you can just place it over top without even removing the old one (which is what I did here). To finish your cover, pull the elastic taunt so that it has just enough give to remove and wash, if needed, but enough so it fits snugly over the the ironing board.

 This cheery new cover actually makes me want to do a little ironing again!

What’s your sewing secret?