I have used an old cotton mattress cover, where the middle is worn out but sides are still in good condition. I had saved this mattress cover, thinking I could use it as batting for a smaller quilt or wall hanging. It turned out to be perfect to use as padding for my worn out ironing board cover. I doubled the padding, using the long sides of the old mattress cover. Now an impression of the grating from the metal ironing board won't even get pressed into fabric I'm ironing! To hold it taut, I used stretchy elastic ironing board cover & mattress pad clips. These are about $2-$3 for a set of 4, maybe you can find some the in the $1 store. I Hope this works for you. Oh, I washed mattress pad before I cut up. :P