New Ironing Board Cover from Old Fabric

But I dearly love my ironing board. It came from Grandma (of course) and I've had it for quite a few years. It's pretty. It's sturdy.    

At one point someone sold it for twenty-five cents.

When Jo suggested that we spruce up our ironing board covers, my first thought was that I did not want to sew a casing. I wondered if it would be sacrilege to staple it to the backside of the wooden board. Once I saw how the old cover was attatched with rusty nails, all bets were off...

(I can't tell what that said. The combination of old-style cursive and faded marker was too much for me to decipher.)

I didn't know what I was  going to recover it with, just that it had to be something already in my stash.  My first plan was to dig out a cute vintage sheet, but in the dreamland where my sewing room is all clean and tidy and my ironing board is actually set up, I don't do cute and flowered and coordinated.

Then I remembered the feed sacks that I unearthed while I was looking for self-striping sock yarn. I wish that webpages could convey texture. The fabric is old and faded, but it feels absolutely yummy! And I can just imagine a housewife covering this wooden ironing board with something like this back in the day...

It reads "Cinncinati Seamless," which I guess is the company that manufactured the bag. There are a lot of these for sale on etsy. It's probably a good thing I didn't see those prices before I finished stapling it to my ironing board... although mine is faded and has a few minor holes.

I'd planned to strip the board down to bare wood, but the padding under the nasty silver cover looks really old and was reasonably clean, so it stayed. There's an exposed section at the narrow end. I haven't  decided whether to cut into the second matching bag to cover it, or leave it as-is for now. And I ran out of staples.

I do not iron clothes. Ever. When I  press fabric for my quilting, I use one of those June Tailor Cut'N Press boards at the kitchen table.  

Now, who can solve a mystery for me? I've seen a ton of these wooden ironing boards in antique shops, but never one with a metal plate for the iron to rest on. I didn't even know it was there until I took the silver cover off, and when I called Grandma, she'd never heard of such a thing. Google isn't providing me with any answers, either.

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer, Melissa's Antiques
For more finishes, check out  Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.