Learn to sew the easiest, elasticized ironing board cover with cotton fabric and a thrifted wool blanket, no bias tape needed! In this tutorial, I’m making a table top ironing board cover and pad, but the process is the exact same for a full size ironing board.
Have you ever given much thought to what’s in your ironing board cover? From the store, they usually come with a cotton fabric, but the padding is 100% plastic. And that plastic is getting heated and off-gassing like crazy every time you iron over it! So, re-covering it is one easy step towards a less toxic home. You could use cotton batting for the padding, but it’s quite expensive and you will probably need two layers. What I’ve been using since getting my table top ironing board (which came with the most flimsy layer of foam padding), is a thrifted wool blanket.
I always look for wool blankets at the thrift store, and if I find one, I buy it, because I know I’ll find a use for it around my home. I’m not talking about knitted blankets, these are the ones that are felted and about 1/4 inch thick.
For the fabric component, I also used some thrifted cotton muslin, and no bias tape. Bias tape definitely has it’s place, but I just feel like for something elasticized, it’s a waste of fabric and effort.
Supplies and Materials
- Ironing board (I got this one from Canadian Tire)
- Iron
- Sewing machine
- Wool blanket
- Cotton fabric (6 inches longer and wider than ironing board)
- 1/4 inch elastic (1.5 x the length of ironing board)
- Matching thread
- Pins
- Scissors
How to make a wool ironing board pad
Step 1 – The very first step is to wash and dry your wool blanket. Be warned, wet wool smells like sheep and always will! It’s kind of cool, actually. Wash with cold water on gentle, and tumble dry on warm. They actually don’t shrink that much, if at all. But I’m still hesitant to machine wash and dry after I’ve made something with them.
Step 2 – Next you need to cut out the wool padding. Simply lay the ironing board upside down on top of your wool blanket. You don’t need to take the cover off at this point, I just did because I was using the wool pad I already had for the picture. Cut all around the board, adding a little more than the depth of your ironing board (usually about 1 inch). This is just so it can wrap around the edges. The padding is done… that was easy!
If your blanket is thinner than 1/4 inch, just make 2 layers.
Cutting out the cotton fabric for the ironing board cover
Step 3 – Now lay your ironing board over your fabric and cut all around, leaving enough extra fabric for the depth of the board, plus 2 inches. So for me this was 3 inches, which I just eyeballed. When you’re done, fold your fabric in half lengthwise to make sure it’s even and trim if needed.
How to make the casing for the elastic
Sewing the ease stitching and ironing the first fold
Step 4 – Sew an ease stitch (longest stitch length, needle tension low, no backstitching) around the top and bottom of the cover. You only need to sew around where the curved parts are. Sew on the wrong side of the fabric, 1/4 inch from the edge.
By the way, this is the same technique I used to sew the rounded edges of my beeswax bowl and casserole dish covers (check out the post here if you’re interested).
Step 5 – Now iron all around the edge 1/4 inch to the wrong side, using the line you just stitched as a guide on the rounded parts.
Pinning and gathering for the second fold
Step 6 – Next, fold another 1/2 inch to the wrong side, pinning every few inches and making sure not to pull the folded part to either side.
Step 7 – Once all the pins are in place, you can pull on the bobbin tails (they will be poking out on the right side) to gather your rounded edges in towards the middle of the rounded sections. I like to gather a little too much, then starting in the middle of the section, work the gathers back out so that the folds are all sitting nicely at 1/2 inch. If the fabric is wavy and the folds are trying to be wider than 1/2 inch, you just need to work the gathers out a little more. It doesn’t have to be perfect, because you can also adjust at the sewing machine.
Sewing the casing
Step 8 – Now put your machine settings back to normal. Starting at the center bottom, edgestitch all around, leaving a small 1/2 – 3/4 inch gap to thread the elastic through. You will be sewing over a few small gathers. Make sure to back stitch!
Cutting and threading the elastic into the casing
Step 9 – Cut your elastic 1.5 times the length of your ironing board. This is just to start, but you will probably be cutting it a little shorter later.
Use a safety pin to thread the elastic all the way through.
Step 10 – Put it on your ironing board and tighten the elastic as much as needed. You want it be very tight, but so that you can still remove it when needed. Tie a secure knot once you’ve got it right. You could instead lap the ends and sew the opening closed, but you will never notice the difference, and this way it’s easier to adjust if the elastic loosens up over time.
And you’re all done!
Isn’t it lovely? So easy, but such a nice little improvement.
FAQ’s
How do I know if a blanket is 100% wool?
Hopefully there will be a label, but if not, you can perform a simple burn test. Cut off a very small piece and hold with tweezers. Light it on fire, set it in a dish, and observe. It won’t light too easily, it will smell like hair as it burns, and it will leave a crusty residue that turns to powder between your fingers. If it leaves hard little plastic balls, then it has at least some plastic in it.
How well do wool ironing board pads work?
I love mine! It’s not too thin, and it seems like it works just a little better than polyester batting when it comes to actually ironing things on it.
Do I need a cotton cover over the wool ironing pad?
Yes, because wool does scorch on the highest ironing settings.
And now you know how to make your very own wool and cotton ironing board cover!
Have you ever repurposed wool blankets in your home? I’d love to know what you’ve used them for. Also, let me know if you would be interested in a post about all the ways I’ve found to use wool blankets in my home!
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