Do you ever have days where you have a plan for the day, and you totally throw it out the window because you need to make something and have it done NOW?

Saturday was exactly that kind of day for me.  In the morning I volunteered at Fabric-a-Brac and bought lots of gorgeous goodies (I shared some of them on Facebook, and will be showing you a project made with something else I got on Wednesday).

I was supposed to spend the afternoon working on a dress that I’m planning to wear to a wedding I’m going to next weekend.  When I began to work on the dress and tried to iron the fabric I was just so disgusted with my ironing board cover that I couldn’t deal with it anymore.

I whipped out some heavy white cotton fabric I’d bought less than two hours before, pulled out some wool batting from Made on Marion, and some purple lingerie elastic I’d got in a Wellington Sewing Bloggers swap (purple isn’t a colour I like for underwear, and it was the only elastic I had around the house that was the right width, length and elasticity) and got to work.

I used my old ironing board cover as a pattern:

I just drew a chalk line around it.  In retrospect I wish I’d added more ease all around the edges, because my old cover (you can see how revolting looking it is in this photo) was ‘shaped’ on the corners, and more ease would have pulled the cover tighter on the ironing board.

Then I zig-zagged the elastic all around the edges, pulling the elastic tight as I sewed.

And there it was – the cover pretty much done!  I know it’s boring, but I really like plain white ironing board covers, so that I can see if they get any marks or stains that might transfer to my fabric.

My ironing board pad was just as disgusting as the cover, so I used it as a pattern to cut a new one out of the wool batting.  I’m using two layers, but want to buy a bit more so I can have three.

I like this photo – the wool batting looks like scissors and you can see my awesome red patent leather shoes.  

I had to piece the batting a bit on one piece:

Then I sewed pieces of elastic on either end to slip under the bottom of the ironing board to hold the cover on snug.  And, less than an hour later, I was done:

Very gratifying!  And something that has been on my to-do list for ages but was never quite the top priority is finally done.

Miss Fiss approves by the way:

As far as she is concerned I just re-covered her throne.

She loves the ironing board because 1) I’m always using it so it must be important and thus should be hogged, 2) I’m always using it so it’s often warm, 3) it’s padded, and 4) it puts her at the perfect height for all sorts of passing pets and cuddles.