Portable Ironing Board

I love this cute, portable, round ironing board! It's from the blog, I'm Feelin' Crafty. It's such a great idea!

She has included a tutorial. 

I'm making one soon!

Make a TV Tray Ironing Board

How To Make a TV Tray Ironing Board

Posted on April 24, 2012
This was sent to me by a friend. I really want to make one! It would be so great for working on projects around the house or at Quilting Retreats.

TUTORIAL: TV Tray Ironing Board

Supplies:

Inexpensive Wooden Tray Table (Target or Walmart)
Natural-Fiber Batting: 4 pieces, about 1-1/2″ larger than the top of your TV table.  I used scraps of Warm & White and Warm & Natural.
Home-Dec Weight Cotton Fabric: 1 piece, about 3″ larger than the top of your TV table. You can use a regular cotton fabric, but you might want to double-it-up or put some lining fabric under it. Or just be ok with the possibility of it wearing out quicker!

Insul-Bright Insulated Batting: 1 piece, about 3″ larger than the top of your TV table.
Staple Gun
Pinking Shears or Pinking Blade in Rotary Cutter (optional)Tack Hammer (optional)

Step One:

Press fabric and lay it, wrong side up, on a table.  First lay your insulated batting fabric, shiny-side down on your fabric. Then center your stack of batting pieces on top of the Insul-Bright.

Step Two:

Center your tray table, upside-down, on top of the batting and fabric stack.  I recommend keeping the legs open – it makes it a LOT easier.

 Step Three:

To reduce the bulk in the corners, cut all your batting in a square almost up to the edge of your table in all four corners.

Step Four:

Starting on one long side, fold your fabric up to the edge of the table (this will tuck the cut edges under and help prevent fraying. You could also trim your fabric with pinking shears if you wanted). Pull the folded fabric to the underside of the table and staple it in place.  If you find it’s difficult to simultaneously hold and staple the fabric, ask a friend to do one while you do the other. Also, if you don’t have enough fabric to fold the fabric under that much you can just kind of roll the cut-edge under before you staple it.

Repeat the same steps on the opposite edge, being sure to pull super tight.

Step Five:

On the corners, tuck and fold the fabric under towards the short side of the table that hasn’t been stapled yet. Put a staple in the edge to secure that fold (it will be hidden).

Repeat on all four corners.

Step Six:

Roll and staple the fabric on the short sides, just as you did on the long.

Step Six:

Now that all sides are secured go back around and fill in the gaps with more staples. That fabric isn’t going anywhere!

And there you have it. Your finished masterpiece!

I love that you can totally make it your own by using fun fabrics or painting the legs. What a great gift for your quilting friends! Or one for every room in your house. Whatever floats your boat !

And look how nicely it folds up!

The idea for this fun project came from the blog Oh, Fransson! and the wonderful craftster AQ Employee, Diane.

It's b-a-a-ck!

My husband has been able to fix the ironing board! Hurray!

I left the ironing board out on the back porch after my last posting. 

I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Is that pathetic?

But, Jay asked about it and then took it into the garage.

Jay had to do some pounding and some welding to put the ole ironing board back together again. 

Rather like Humpty Dumpty, isn't it? 

When I told my Mom she said that we should just the thing die but I like it!

I don't want to have to buy a new one, either. 

The new ones are much wider and I know that they will not last as long.

How can you beat 60 years??!

I am so happy that I have my ironing board back!

Tragedy!

I have had a tragedy in the quilting studio! My longtime friend, my ironing board, has broken.

The leg has broken off of the top.

And, it can't be fixed because the metal is bent.

But, I guess that it is okay and time to let the poor thing go.

My parents were given this ironing board as a wedding present...

in 1952!

My Aunt Marie, who I am named after, Robin Marie, gave it to them as a wedding present

 all those many years ago.

In 1972, my Mom was going to throw it away because the foot had come apart.

 My Dad just duct taped the foot together again and I took it off to college with me,

in 1972!

I had instructions to throw it away and buy a new one when this taped together ironing board broke.

Well, it finally broke.

40 years later,

in 2012!

Can you believe it?

I think that Aunt Marie knew how to pick a great ironing board!

And, another funny part is that just this week, when I was in Costco,

I walked by the ironing boards and said that I would need to be buying 

a new ironing board soon. I never dreamt that I would need to be buying a new one

the very next day! 

Goodbye, ironing board. You've been a good friend!