Ironing Board Makeover. Among other things.

The last couple years, with all the moving and the pregnancy and the baby and the toddler and the homeschooling and so on and so on haven't left much room for sewing for me.

But, if I'm being realistic, it wasn't necessarily the insanity of it all that got me all stuck in the sewing category, but more the being bogged down with old projects that hadn't gotten finished, fabric that I had in my stash but didn't love anymore weighing over my head, and a craft/sewing space completely and utterly void of organization--that part mostly due to moving, but not entirely. 

So in this house I have a really great area to sew. Lots of natural light, lots of floor space, enough room for storage of supplies and room to cut and sew and work. It's taken me a bit with the all the organization it's needed, and the clearing out of the stash, and the lunatic toddler and unfinished projects and all, to get to a place where I can enjoy it, but I've slowly been checking organization and finishing old projects off the list, and this project was needed for some future projects I have coming up that are going to require a good, full surface area for pressing.

Let me preface this post with this picture, which was a ridiculously fun project of sewing and piecing approximately 40 gazillion scraps together to get these riotously happy placemats for my mom. The back of them is nice too--I also pieced that side together, with more muted shades and tones, and more uniform piecing. I call the backside "the preacher is visiting" side. Which is silly, because I'm pretty sure that my parents don't make a habit of having people they call "preachers" over, and what's more, if they did I don't think my mom would stress about having the more orderly side of her placemats up. She'd use a tablecloth. Haha. So, silly. But the backside is more orderly, and pretty, but less remarkable. Anyway, this project got me started on a piecing kick. Actually, I think my hexie piecing got me started on that, but we will save that for another day. Anyway, this was a super fun project, and exactly what I needed to both clean out some of my scraps (I bought some extra red scraps too, to flesh out my collection of fabrics), and give me a cheery kick in the pants at the end of a very long winter.  And, it got the idea for the ironing board cover stuck in my head.

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad before. The foam under the cover was holey and wrinkled and made pressing so frustrating and annoying. For the past 18 months or so, I'd been throwing a folded towel across the top, but that wasn't foolproof at all. Many wrinkles, didn't breathe properly, not long enough, edges askew, so annoying. 

I very rarely iron. I don't actually understand how anyone consistently fits that in their list of things to do, actually. Hat's off to ya if you are one of those ironing people. But, I am SUPER particular about pressing when I sew. My rule (not original to me, but to someone who I sewed with when I was a kid) is to "never pin what you can press." Everything you sew will look so much better if you follow this rule. True story. 

So, we commenced with the fixing of the situation.

I cut a lot of 2.5 inch squares. A LOT OF THEM, I tell you. 

 Laying them all out. Because I am not insane, (debatable) I did what I call "hack-piecing"--I would still be working on this if I'd chosen to individually sew each square to the next square, and then combine the rows. Madness, right? But instead I drew out a 2.5 inch grid on a super lightweight fusible interfacing and ironed them on. Then you just sew your 1/4 inch seam allowance down the interfacing, catching your squares in the seam allowance too.

Because this was on an ironing board, I was worried about the seams and seam allowances pressing into the things I was ironing and pressing. So while I wanted this to work, I also gave myself permission that if it didn't work I would cut the elastic casing off the edges and turn it into a quilt top, no regrets. After I was done making it I tested it on my entire fabric stash as I sorted through and organized, and a bunch of other stuff, and I haven't had a single seam or imprint or anything show up on anything I've ironed or pressed and you can't see the seam allowances at all through the cover either. Thank goodness! Because I love it.

But I did slice open the interfacing and press the seams open really well.

Not quite done yet--waiting for good weather for the final assembly. But meanwhile, trying it out, and pressing and organizing fabric scraps. Welches Fruit Snack boxes are perfect for small fabric scraps--this one got a makeover with yellow spray paint and I love it. 

Padding for the ironing board makes an awesome magic carpet!

Finally, Finally FINALLY!!! Some good weather. Warm enough to spray paint. I unfortunately had a horrible cold on this day. Actually for the past um, forever, it feels like. Plus a sprained ankle. While training for a half marathon. Which is another side story. But anyway. I wasn't feeling top notch on this day, but spray painting had to get done. Because Minnesota doesn't like to let go of winter, and so the cold weather was coming back. So the spray painting had to happen on this day.  So I double-dosed on a pre-workout with excessive amounts of caffiene and amino acids and some cold medicine, and took my ailing self outside to spray. It was beautiful enough and warm enough to break through my self-pity, so it ended up being therapeutic. Of course, it's possible that I was hallucinating, but I'm going to just live in Happy Naomi-land, and go with therapeutic.  Besides, spray painting things always makes me happy.

I did half-inch foam stuck to the top with a spray on adhesive, and one layer of Insul-Brite to protect the melty foam from the heat of the iron. So far it has worked perfectly. I like my ironing board well padded, and this is the perfect thickness.

(Sorry about the terrible lighting. We are in the midst of a stretch of very gray days here) Lighting excuses don't make blog posts, so I took the picture anyway. 

 All Done! And what's more, the area behind and around it is all clean and organized and ready to use too! So happy to have a fun, usable space now.

*** Original Inspiration for the 2.5 inch squares comes from here. I didn't follow her tutorial, but she's who inspired me to go from a crazy all-sized patchwork to a more uniform 2.5 inch squares.