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There are three things I LOVE about my awesome new ironing board.

One is obviously the fabric for the cover. This is The Land that Never Was designed by Lisa Congdon for Cloud9 Fabrics. I love the whole collection!

Two is the size. I can iron an entire piece of fabric – selvedge to selvedge – on this baby – with room to set my iron on the board too.

Please admire the vastness. 🙂

Three is the storage underneath.

I never take my ironing board down – so the easily collapsible X bottom was just a waste of space for me. This ironing board sits on some handy dandy Ikea Expedit shelving!

Here’s how I made it. . .

1. Start with your shelves. I was going to use a different piece from Ikea. When we went they had plenty in stock, but they were all on the top shelves of the storage area and they said they couldn’t get them down until after hours and we’d have to come back the next day. The Ikea is 2 1/2 hours away. Coming back the next day wasn’t an option – so we went with two of these instead, laid them on their sides and screwed them together in the back. It’s even longer than I had planned – but that’s ok with me! (Edited to add: Ikea no longer stocks the Expedit shelving. Their replacement is the Kallax, which would also be suitable for this project.)

I also added the wheels to the bottom for easy moving and vacuuming.

2. Now measure the top of your shelves. Find some small L-brackets and measure them too. You’re going to cut a piece of plywood big enough to hang over the edge of the shelf on all sides by the width of a bracket. These next pictures will make it clear.

Here’s a bracket (the ones I found were 1 1/2 inches) attached to the edge of the plywood. It’s attached to what will be the underside of my ironing board.

In this photo I’ve flipped my board over. It’s resting on the top of the shelving unit and the brackets are holding it in place so it doesn’t slide around. You could screw the brackets to the shelving unit too, but I wanted the whole top to be easily removable and I found that six brackets around the edge (two on each long side and one on each short end) held it in place nicely.

I wrapped the lower (not screwed in) part of the brackets with a layer of masking tape so they wouldn’t scratch the surface of the shelving unit. You never know – I might take this whole thing apart at some time in the future and use the shelves in another way.

Here’s the wooden top seen from above, before adding padding and the cover. Yes – that’s a seam down the middle. No – I don’t recommend doing the top in two pieces. I had a bunch of kids with me in the car the day I bought the wood and I couldn’t put the back seat down to accommodate a larger piece of plywood. I should have waited.

I rounded the corners of the wood just a tiny bit. I set a can of spray paint on the corner and traced that curved edge to use as a guide. This isn’t necessary – but I’m going to use a drawstring cover and it will wrap more neatly around a curve.

Now I’m ready to add some padding and the cover.

I covered the top with six layers of white cotton terry cloth. I usually use cotton batting, but I think this terry cloth might hold up better (compress less) over time. Cut the terrycloth so it hangs over the edge of the tabletop by 1-2 inches. Smooth out any folds or wrinkles.

Round the corners of the terrycloth too.

Now it’s time to add the pretty! A good selvedge on fabric makes me happy in the same way that good endpapers in a book make me happy.

From here on out it’s just like covering any ironing board. I’ve got a video here showing how.

Cut the fabric to cover the top plus 1-2 inches all around the edge – just like the terry cloth. Round the corners of the top fabric, too.

Sew bias tape all around the edge of the new cover. Use that bias tape as a tube and thread it with a long piece of cord. I like using a smooth nylon cord – it draws up easily.

Center your cover over your ironing board. Draw up the drawstring and use a toggle to hold it in place.

Ta daaaa! I love my new ironing board!

Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.

Sewing Machine

• My Sewing Machine and Why I Love It
• How to Choose a Sewing Machine for a Beginner
• My Favorite Sewing Machine Feet
• Basic Sewing Machine Maintenance

Iron

• My Iron
• How to Recover Any Ironing Board
• My Huge Ironing Board – Ikea Hack Instructions

Rotary Cutting Tools

• My Favorite Rotary Cutting Tools
• How to Use a Rotary Cutter and Ruler
• How to Clean a Fuzzy Cutting Mat

Scissors

• The Great Scissor Rotation
• My Favorite Scissors for Cutting Applique Shapes

Other General Sewing Room Supplies

• Easy Pattern Weights (a free pattern)
• Pincushion (a free pattern)
• Needle Cushion (a free pattern)
• Sewing Machine Cover (a free pattern)
• How to Make a Design Wall
• How to Make a DIY Cutting Table

One More Hugely Popular Post that Seems to Fit Here Better than Anywhere Else

• How to Declutter a Craft Room

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the posts about choosing your quilt pattern.

Happy sewing!