Tool Time Tuesday...Make Your Own Ironing Board

Happy Tuesday! Today's project is about how to make your own ironing board or ironing station and the "tool" of the day is a staple gun!!

Over the years, I've used a regular ironing board in my sewing room. They work great to adjust the height up and down, but the size of work surface is better for ironing clothing. I do like the feature of bringing the ironing board down low when I'm sewing at the sewing machine and need to press things quickly, but I do need a larger work surface. Larger areas are great for ironing larger pieces of fabric or quilt tops.

Here is my new ironing station!!

My friend Tabatha from work gave me this table. Hi Tabby! Thanks You!! I love the size...long, but narrow.

The first step to make an ironing board is to cover it with quilt batting. I used 2 layers of super thin batting. You can decide how thick you would want your own board.

Love my staple guns...I actually have 3 of them!!

For the batting, you just need to tack it down in a few places to start. Most of the stapling will be done when the fabric goes on.

Depending on your staple gun and the wood you are stapling into, some staples may not go in all the way.

Just tap them in with a hammer.

Just a few tacks here and there to hold it in place.

All covered.

Now for the fabric...I ironed my right on the table to start, because of the wrinkles from storing the fabric.

To make the fabric tight around the edges, I turned the table over to get good pressure on the staple gun. Staple all around and trim off excess fabric.

I stapled every 2 inches or so, pulling tight as I went along. I did have a pretty black and white fabric, but it had a specific directional pattern and it would drive me crazy if it were pulled more in one direction in the pattern. This smaller, all over print was better.

Pull corner fabric and staple the heck out of it!! LOL

All set and ready to go.

I have one of the rubber ironing pads.

Helps when you are ironing along and need to move fabric along, but just put the iron down for a second. Won't scortch the board.

This is long enough for 2 friends on a sewing day!! Tina, are you ready?

You can use any size table to make an ironing station fit your sewing room. Look for old tables in thrift stores, yard sales, from your family or maybe even in your own basement. You might have something that you don't know what to do with because you don't like the way it looks. Perfect...cover it up and make an ironing board out of it!!

Happy ironing,
~Karen~