Ironing board cover - not off topic

And don't you love your Rowenta? As for a cover, I don't know which brands are which but I like Teflon. Also, I always use a sheer pressing cloth for needlework.

Felice

I've never made a cover for a large ironing board, but I have made ones for my sleeve boards: with muslin.

Muslin is good, but I'd bet a nice percale would be even better. See if you can find a good weight, tightly woven. Cotton is washable. You can usually find good cotton covers at most stores that sell ironing products. I get mine at a local hardware store, of all places!!

I rarely use a press cloth. Each of us has to find our own way.

Dianne

I actually bought a new iron for myself lately as well. I was looking for cordless. After much research, I found a panasonic one was very good. Got one at a good price on ebay, after discovering the true price, I really did get a good deal. Heats quickly, has a non-stick surface and is lighter than my old regular iron, works wonderful. Comes with a carry case and everything.

I would agree about a teflon cover for the iron board. My mom has one and it works wonderful. After I got my new iron, I bought a teflon cover as well. I'm quite pleased with myself.

Lynne (in Ottawa)

You can usually buy muslin cloths pretty cheaply. In the dressmaking studio where I've done a lot of classes, there is muslin on the boards. And the huge pressing tables, as well. At home, though, I have a teflon cover. I bought a larger than standard ironing center last year, and it came with 1 of the Teflon cloths - I'm pretty happy with it.

I just wouldn't use a polyester/percale kind of cloth. Not great if you ever do high heat. And definitely pressing cloths. I actually use just some cotton hankies for thin pressing cloths, and press needlework with a fluffy towel under it & from the wrong side (keeps the stitches from smushing too much).

Good luck on the cover front.

Ellice

I find it's not so much the cover (though a quality cover is a must), but the pad that makes a difference. I gave up and made my own several years back with about 10 layers of flannellette (OK, it was an old sheet). I just kept folding it up until it felt right, rounded out the corners, stitched bias tape around the edge, and ran a cord through tape. It's nice to be able to fit the pad independent of the cover.

Tara

You might want to make yourself a pressing board, rather than a regular ironing board cover, especially if you're doing stuff like steaming finished embroidery.

A pressing board is just a handy-sized chunk of exterior plywood, with folded wool fabric on top for padding, and then covered with something like light colored cotton twill or a couple layers of muslin. The wool absorbs steam from the pressing, getting the fabric you're pressing dried out. Metallized covers won't let the steam through, so your fabric sits in a puddle of condensed steam and stays damp... then when you pick it up, it gets distorted.

Wool melton or old wool blanket is kind of the standard for pressing board padding, but wool flannel or such works just as well -- you're after the resilience of the wool.

Toss a piece of muslin on top of the cover if you're doing something messy, like ironing starched fabric or fusing interfacing.

Kay

another anne, add ingers to reply

I am using my mother's old ironing board which she bought with my 1960 baby bonus! It is a heavy iron frame thing with a pinewood top! They sure don't make them like this any more.

As I loathe ironing it sees precious little action. My cover is many years old now and is heavy Sanderson Linen meant for upholstery. I washed it and then simply cut it over sized and added a pocket to the edge. The board top is padded with some thick felt of totally unknown origins and a thick flannelette pad made from an old sheet. This combination have been in service for around 7 years, and look like they were made yesterday.

Cheers

Joanne

anne ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

If you can get bayberries

and putsome in a cotton bag, you can clean any gunk off your iron. Yousimply run the very hot iron over the bag, and it just works. Use alight cotton. Other than that, for years I bought expensive irons and generally the first thing to go after a couple of years was the steaming capability. The iron I have now I purchased probably ten years ago and it still steams as if it's life depended on it - which it does !

I was mad at another expensive one gone bad and picked this one up for $11.99 in Hudsons Bay figuring it could not be worse and it's actually far better than any I had before that. It's a Proctor Silex.

For years I went to one or another cross stitch show and there was always a booth with someone selling a Wonder ironing board cover. Did I get one? No. I just said "how silly". And of course I needed one all the time and now they aren't there...

Alison

I covered my sleeve boards with muslin and the ironing board with unbleached cotton duck. All-cotton twill is also good, and there's a fuzzy-back twill called "canton flannel" that makes a good ironing surface -- particularly when you throw a cloth over a blanket on a kitchen table to iron yard goods; the fuzz keeps it from sliding around.

Avoid dyed fabric, printed fabric, and synthetic fibers. (Nomex is acceptable, but costs more than cottons that are at least as good.) (Presumably linen and hemp would be better than cotton of the same quality, but these fabrics are not easy to come by, and decent quality is very expensive.)

For padding, wool batting (or an old blanket) is best, cotton batting is good, polyester batting is Right Out. The old padding is usually re-usable, but should be tossed if it's lumpy.

I recently learned that cotton cord is better than nylon cord for drawing up the edges -- the fullness stays where you put it, and doesn't loosen up again while you are tying the knot. It does require you to push the gathers to where they are wanted. I push too many gathers into the corners, then stretch some of them out while putting the cover on. This leaves very little gathering to do before knotting the cord.

Joy Beeson

I'd be afraid to buy a larger than standard ironing board...it would just mean I could pile more stuff on it, LOL! More horizontal surface. I suspect that no matter the size of the board, I'd end up with exactly the same amount of space left for ironing.

Sue

LOL - how true that is. But, it has that nice silicon iron rest extension off the end, and a rack under the front. That said, it is currently covered with stacks of clean, laundered clothes that were supposed to go to the spare room. Downstairs I have the normal size one in the sewing area. You'd think one day I'd switch and put the big one in the sewing area, and the smaller one folded upstairs in the guest room.

Sigh.

Ellice - happily back after a lovely outing to Woodlawn with Donna & Ericka

- and my DH - surprise (other car with flat tire, time constraints - he played hookie)

Thanks for all the suggestions.