It's easy peasy...
I took a piece of plywood, cut to the length I wanted and I rounded the corners so they weren't so pokey. I cut mine originally at 24x48" and found the 24" to be too deep for me so I cut it down to 18 or 20. I don't remember exactly the number and I'll admit it - I'm too lazy to get the tape measure out. I only did 48" as I bought a half sheet of plywood from Home Depot so that's what it was going to be for me. If I could do it again, I might go a wee bit longer but then with my ironing board I'm still able to use the handy dandy iron rest which is sweet too...


okay.. onward with the directions...
Lay your cotton material (I used stripes cause I had it in canvas and it was fun to look at) that is about 3-4" bigger than your board on each side.

Put 2 thicknesses of cotton batting on that,
Lay your board on that.
Take a staple gun and wrap around the fabric and staple... all the way on one side - then do the other side, stretching the material as you go.

Then do the short ends the same way - pulling, and stretching to get it tight.

I then took pieces of 1x2" boards, cut in to 4 pieces,
Lay your ironing board on top and mark where you should put your cut pieces of wood - I put one on each side of the length of it and one on each side of where the ironing board tapers... then nail them in place.

Bam! You got a kickin' ironing board that other quilters are jealous of! I know that my sewing group loves my ironing board!

Here's a pic of the back side of the board - and one of it on the ironing board - okay, you'll have to use your imagination on how it would look when the ironing board is in its upright position.. I'm just not that tall to get an overhead shot without standing on a chair lol.

Neat idea!!!

It wasn't my idea trust me - I saw it on a Ricky Tims/Alex Anderson episode online awhile ago, then found a tutorial that I could not locate again when I went to look for it but it's a great board. Love it :)
I can iron a full width of 45" fabric which is sweet.

Got one - Love it - only use the ironing board for dress shirts.
:)

Sounds nice. I will have to have my husband take a look. How about adding a layer of "Thermo" type batting to help protect the other batting?

My LQS gals made these for their classroom. However I was told to be sure to drill holes in the plywood about every 4 - 6 inches to allow steam to go through. Assuming you use steam in your iron. They were burning out their Rowenta irons after a couple months and couldn't figure out why. Somehow the steam backs up or something and will damage the iron. If you look at a regular board it does have holes in the surface. So DH drilled holes in mine and so far I haven't had a problem.

Cool tute. Thanks for sharing.

Been thinking of making one - yours looks so easyto make. Thanks so much for the tip.

MY DH made me one about 3 yrs. ago now and I just love it. Mine is 72" by 24" and I just use a fun sewing theme fabric for the cover. The cover lasts me about 2 yrs. and then I have to make a new one or as I did just path in a new area where I iron and wear it out the most.

My hubby made me one also....he made his own directions...but like Yarn or Fabric wrote.......a half sheet of plywood makes two boards.

There are directions for the boards in a lot of the mail catalogs.

mj