Do you have one of the tracing wheels? It looks like a pizza cutter with teeth. I cut fabric about 2" bigger then the ironing pad and then use the tracing wheel to roll the excess between the cutting mat and ironing side. It works great. Now all I have to do is pull the cover off and change it out whenever I like. I use pretty fabric. Using thin muslin you can still see the lines from the original cover and have a clean surface.