Not Your Ordinary Ironing Board Cover

You'll have to agree with me that shopping for ironing board covers is a very disappointing experience. It is for me, at least. I've had everything from ugly green to tan stripes with blue flowers. Uggh!!

Last year I found a cute ironing board cover from Martha at Kmart.

Even though it didn't match my sewing room, it wasn't ugly. And, as Martha would say, "That's a good thing".

Edit: Sharon asked about the cute little project sitting on my ironing board. It's a gift bag that I found in the winter issue of Quilts and More 2006. American Patchwork and Quilting also has a website at http://allpeoplequilt.com. In their "Ideas and Projects" section you will find the little gift bag lunch sack.

Well, as we all know, all "good things" must come to an end, and the cuteness of Martha's ironing board cover design was no exception. I can see where it's starting to turn a little brown over there in the right hand corner.


Eventually, the little brown spot turned into this:

Yuck!!!

Soon my "world of ironing" would change while visiting Jona at her blog, Stop Staring and Start Sewing. She has this great blog, and she sells fabric at her online fabric store, Fabritopia I've had her "Apron In an Hour" tutorial listed on my sidebar for a few months now. Anyway...one day she posted about her friend Cassie celebrating her one year blogaversary. Cassie has this adorable pencil roll and she was giving a tutorial on how to make one. I scrolled down to see what she was doing. I saw that she was using elastic hairbands for the closures (great idea!). Then, all of the sudden I saw this gorgeous ironing board cover!!!! Click here and you'll drool see it. Be sure to scroll down a little and enjoy her pencil roll tutorial while you're at it. Immediately I posted a comment. Here's what it said:


Happy one year blogaversary! Thanks, too, for the tutorial. I love how you used elastic hairbands for the closure. I would have never thought of that.

I, also, would love to know where you got that beautiful ironing board cover!

Cassie e-mailed me back and said that she made the ironing board cover using the tutorial that Jona has on her blog. I knew Jona had tutorials, but I guess I got stuck on the "Apron in an Hour" ! So, I went back to her blog, and there it was "Ironing Board Cover".

In about an hour and a half (including the time I spend trying to find something from my stash and taking out the stretchy string from the old ironing board cover) I had a new ironing board cover.

Now, I know this isn't the greatest fabric in the world, and no, it doesn't match my sewing room, but I did want to use something that's been laying on the shelf a couple of years before I went out and spent money on something more expensive. Besides that, I can pass this along to my oldest daughter who has her own ironing board. She'll love it!

Now, if I could only find the perfect iron....
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To the Sunday Stash Buster Reporters from Judy's blog: I don't know how much fabric Iused to make my ironing board cover, but I did use my stash. I also made 200 half square triangles from my stash for the Quilt Along that Judy is doing. Since my quilt isn't really going to be scrappy, I did have to buy 1 1/2 yards of fabric for the outside border. The bolt was almost empty, and it was 30% off, so I thought it was a good time to buy it.

Diet Challenge Update: I didn't get near the scales this week after celebrating Terry's birthday twice and my son in law's birthday once. I realize now (well I've sort of known it for a while) but this 20 or so pounds is for all the fun I have in life. Although I didn't eat as well as I should this week, I did go walking 5 days. The "all women's" gym I went to closed down due to economic times. I'm still going to go walking and do my weight lifting. I found a local TV show that has a local trainer, so I'll be lifting weights and doing sit ups and squats with her.

Amanda