How to Make a Portable Ironing Pad

It's such a hassle to put up the ironing board just to iron the odd garment. And the last time you used your travelling iron abroad on holiday, you damaged the hotel furniture because you didn't have your ironing board. The solution is easy: Make a portable ironing pad that you can just whip out without bother and lay flat on any work surface.

Instructions

Portable Ironing-Board Pad

1

Buy a new padded ironing board cover or use your old cover to make your portable pad.

2

Decide how big you want your portable pad to be. Take a piece of chalk and your ruler and measure out a rectangle of your required size (within the measurements of your ironing board cover).

3

Cut the rectangle piece out of the ironing board cover using a sharp pair of dressmaker's scissors.

4

Take some colored ribbon to offer a contrast to the ironing board cover fabric. Fold the ribbon over the edge of the pad fabric. Sew it on your sewing machine with a standard running stitch. Glue the ribbon on with spray adhesive as an alternative method. Trim off the ends with scissors.

5

Fold it in half and then fold it in half again to create a square that can easily fit snugly into a cloth travel pouch.

Travel Pouch

6

Make a travel pouch to keep your portable ironing pad clean and neat. Measure the length and width of the folded pad (1/4 of the size of the rectangle) with your ruler. Note the measurements on a piece of scrap paper.

7

Take what is left of your old ironing board cover or use a piece of cotton fabric. Fold the fabric in half so that the right side of the fabric faces inward. Measure out on the fabric a rectangle from the measurements you noted down. Make sure that the fold is at the bottom of the length of the rectangle. Cut out the rectangle, but make sure that you cut a 1/2-inch seam allowance.

8

Unfold the fabric. Fold over a narrow hem at either end of the rectangle length. Sew the hem on a sewing machine.

9

Fold the fabric with the right side facing inward ready for sewing.

10

Sew a narrow seam at either side of the rectangle pouch. Leave the hemmed end open.

11

Turn the pouch inside out so that the right side of the fabric faces outward. Insert your folded portable ironing pad into its travel pouch ready for use.