I change my ironing board cover when I get tired of the one on it. I find great novelty prints on sale that I love but have no use for using in a quilt so I use them for my ironing board covers. Life is too short to not have a pretty ironing board cover.

My mother always used worn out sheets or anything she had. I use towels &/or blankets with a sheet for a cover. You can buy a set of little springs with hooks on each end to hold the cover on your board. Pretty sure they are available at WalMart in the household section. That way you don't have to cut & sew anything.

I don't see the reason to use old worn items to make an ironing board cover, you end up with an old worn ironing board cover. ?

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

I use left over cotton batting for the pad under my ironing board cover.

I always read that a solid hard surface was the best way to iron/press. If the steam or heat goes out the bottom of the board it's not a good ironing surface. The open grid boards are made that way to save on cost and make it lightweight.

The hooks misseva mentioned are available at JoAnn's too. Also, they have the kind of coated fabric that many ironing board covers are made of available by the yard.

I recently made 2 covers, one for my SIL and one for myself. I used the Instructables fabulous ironing board tute. I re-used the nylon binding that was on my original cover. Used 2 layers of cotton blend quilt batting. Cover made from cheeta print fabric I found on clearance at Walmart. I just love it! http://www.instructables.com/id/Fabu...g-board-Cover/

an old sheet or beach towel, then the ironing board cover.

It depends on if you are covering an IRONING board (which you use for clothes with buttons or zippers) or a PRESSING board (which you use for quilting)... there is a difference! For ironing, you need a padded surface and for pressing you need one that isn't as padded and is quite firm. I have one ironing board for clothing construction and 3-4 different sized pressing boards to use by my machines or to put on top of the ironing board. If you embroider, you want a padded board that you press the embroidery on (possibly even on top of a towel also) from the wrong side. (makes the stitching stand out more). I hope that helps you understand why different people use different things, according to their needs.