Ironing board cover

Why shouldn't even the most mundane domestic objects be glamorous? Ironing boards take up a lot of space and, for that reason alone, they should be top of your 'in need of transformation' hit list

With a little imagination and a metre and a half of decent fabric you can change one of these bleakly utilitarian and functional beasts into a fashion statement that looks better out of the closet than in it. It'll make ironing a whole lot more bearable, too.


You will need

  1. 1.5m 100 per cent cotton fabric (don't use anything other than cotton, as you need fabric that can withstand the heat of an iron)
  2. Thin foam 8cm longer than your ironing board
  3. A piece of Bondaweb the length of your ironing board (Bondaweb is a fusible webbing that sticks to your fabric, and once you peel off the paper backing it will bond another fabric to the other side. You can get it from a haberdasher's)
  4. 3m 3cm-wide bias binding that matches your fabric
  5. Approximately 3.5m thin cord
  6. Baking parchment for making your pattern (any paper will do, but parchment comes on a roll, so you won't need to stick lots of sheets together to get the length of an ironing board)
  7. Dressmaker's pins, medium-sized safety pin and a needle - a sewing machine is handy, but not essential
  8. Matching thread
  9. Fabric scissors
  10. Tailor's chalk or fabric marker pen
  11. Iron and ironing board
Method

ironing board cover Place the ironing board upside down on a sheet of baking parchment or other similar light paper. Draw around the outline of the ironing board and cut out the shape.

Pin this pattern to the wrong side of your fabric (in line with the grain - that's parallel to the selvedge). Draw a dotted line on the fabric, 5cm larger than the pattern all the way around, and cut along this dotted line, using sharp scissors.

Cut a piece of Bondaweb and thin foam 4cm bigger than your paper pattern.

ironing board cover Place the Bondaweb, rough side down (and paper side up), in the centre of the back of your fabric. Don't put it on the patterned side of your fabric or you will have to start again. With your iron on the cotton setting, slowly iron the back of the paper, so that the sticky stuff has time to melt and fuse to your fabric. (1)

Once you're happy that the Bondaweb has stuck, allow it to cool for a few minutes, then peel the paper backing off. (2)

ironing board cover The wrong side of your fabric will now feel a little 'soapy'. Place the thin foam over this 'soapy' Bondaweb-ed area, flip it over and iron on the right side of the fabric. The heat will go through the fabric and fuse the other side of the Bondaweb to the foam. Don't iron the foam - it'll melt instantly. (3) Fold your bias binding in half and iron down the fold.

Starting at the centre of the straight edge, pin the bias binding around the perimeter of the ironing board cover, sandwiching the raw edge inside the fold. Catch the very edge of the foam in the binding, but just a little - too much foam inside this channel will make it tricky to pull the cord through. Turn the binding under twice at each end for a neat finish.

ironing board cover Sew all the way around the inside edge of the bias binding. It's worth doing this slowly, as you need to make sure you're catching the binding on both sides and keeping your seam line no less than 1cm from the edge of the fabric - any less and you won't be able to squeeze the cord through the channel to secure your ironing board cover to the board. (4)

Singe the end of the cord with a lighter (assuming it's a synthetic material - most are) and pinch it, then attach a safety pin to the end. Gently shimmy the safety pin all the way through the channel; do this slowly. The reason I suggest melting the end is because cord frays easily - it's most annoying if you've already pulled it three-quarters of the way around the ironing board shape and the safety pin becomes detached.

ironing board cover Once you pull the safety pin out of the other side of the channel (congratulations!), place your new cover over your ironing board and pull both ends of the cord until it fits snugly over the top of the board. Tie the cords together underneath to secure.

Phew, at least that's a little more cheer put into the tedious task of ironing ... Which actually, once you stick on the TV or a Red Hot Chilli Peppers album, makes you feel that a bout of domestic slavery isn't so bad after all.

More crafts by Danielle Proud

Excerpted from House Proud by Danielle Proud, priced £16.99, published by Bloomsbury.