I'd like to make one of those ironing board extenders you lay on top of a regular ironing board. I can figure out how to make the wood part but I'm not sure what to use for the padding or the cover. What materials work best? Can you use regular batting like warm and natural or is it best to use a specific kind. How many layers works best. What type of fabric works best for the cover?? Thanks

When I made mine, I used 2 layers of warm & natural and covered it with duck cloth. Seems to work good for me. Hope this helps.

What the heck is duck cloth?? I know what duct tape is but other than that I'm lost! I was just commenting the other day to my DH (NOT a handyman) that it would be cool if we could make the small end of the ironing board the same size as the big end. He said yeah that would work better for you!

Duck cloth is a really heavy, upholstery weight cotton. Do a google search, you'll find lots of info. It is available in fabric stores that also sell upholstery and/or home decor fabric.
Here's a website with more info.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_duck

Duck cloth is another word for canvas - a bit coarser fabric than denim. Comes in white and assorted other colors. I am putting a new cover on my home-made oversize board & I found a nice stripe! I get mine at WalMart! I bought 2 yards of 54" wide. I plan on using the extra width to re-cover the 2 small boards that I have for workshops - 12" x 24".

When you make your top, you are going to probably buy a sheet of plywood. I used 3/4" with 1 good side. I had them cut 3' off one end and then cut the remaining 5' x 4' into 2 pieces 2' x 5'. This is larger than the commercially available one, but I love every extra inch of it! You will have enough for another board + extra at the end.

Don't forget you will need to get some 1" x 2" strips that you will screw or nail to the bottom side of your board. I laid the board with the good side down on the carpet. Then I placed my ironing board on top of that, putting it where I would want it to support the plywood. Then I cut strips of the 1" x 2" into lengths that went along both sides the "nose" of the ironing board and along the sides and 1 at the back end. Wouldn't want this thing to slide off the back!

After I had the strips screwed in place, then I laid the cover fabric right side down and put 2 layers of cotton batting over it. I had already cut these pieces before hand. Place the plywood over all this, centering it and bring the fabric around to the top. Staple-gun it down, tugging on the sides so that it is nice and tightly fitting. I started stapling in the center of one long side and went down that side just about all the way. Then went around to the other side and did the same thing, only pulling on it. Repeat with the ends!

The biggest benefit to the larger size is that your fabric will usually be about 42" - 45" wide. A 48" long board is barely longer than the fabric is wide. With a 60" long board, you have a place to rest your iron, or other things.

Hope this helps. I made my board nearly 9 years ago & it's still working just fine. Someone here on the Board asked if you needed to drill holes for the steam to escape. I don't have holes and after all this time, the board hasn't warped one bit.

My ironing board is an antique woodwn one with only about a dozen holes in it. It isn't warped either. In the previous century, they "sprinkled" their laundry before ironing it. My mother did that & so did I when I first got married 40 years ago. You could buy a gadget that fit into the top of a glass soda bottle. After sprinkling, you rolled the piece into a compact ball, slipped it into a plastic bag (yes they made bags for this with a zipper at one end. It was a heavier, more flexible plastic than we commonly have now. Anyway, after sprinkling everything and putting it in the bag, we put it in the frig overnight. Sort of like marinating it! :) In the morning, all was relaxed and ready to be ironed. Why the frig? Just in case you didn't get to it the next day or, like we did, you lived in a very humid climate.

Enough of the history lesson! Hope you enjoy making and using a over-size ironing board.