The Easiest DIY Pressing Board Tutorial!

poweredbyquilting

6 years ago

Having a pressing board is a million times better than a regular ironing board. A pressing board is firm enough to give your blocks a great press to keep all your blocks nice and flat. I have been using a homemade pressing board for the past few years. When I was doing research on how to make a pressing board, I found a lot of them to be rather complicated and more work than I was willing to do. One of the quilters at my local quilt shop suggested that I use utility fabric and a TV tray to make a portable pressing board that can be kept next to your sewing machine and used to travel.

This got me thinking that I could make a BIG pressing board easily! Since it's been almost 3 years since I've changed my pressing board fabric, I figured I'd give you my method on the easiest DIY Pressing Board!

This is my current pressing board and it's 24"x48" big. I put it directly on top of my cube shelving and iron on the pressing board. Before this set up I had placed the board on top of one of the plastic portable tables that are 30"x72". It was warm under the pressing board, but not nearly hot enough to warp anything underneath it. I took the utility fabric off my pressing mat so I'll be at the starting point of making a pressing board from scratch.

You need 3 things to make your own Pressing Board:

Wood in the desired size of your pressing board. Buy particle board or composite board, a solid piece of one type of wood will actually warp over time with the use of steam with your iron. The first board I purchased was one type and it warped so bad I had to replace the board within a year. The particle/composite board is comprised of multiple pieces and types that are fused together and will not warp as much with the steam.
Utility Fabric. You can purchase this from Joann's. It's labeled as ironing board fabric. Regular price is about $14.99/yard, use a coupon!
A heavy duty staple gun like the PowerShot shown in the photo above.

Here are the steps to cover your wood with the utility fabric. Make sure that the utility fabric is cut to the length of your board. I staple on the short edges of the fabric along both sides of the board on the top. My iron doesn't catch the staples as long as they are flat against the wood, the utility fabric provides enough fluff on top. Be careful with the staple gun, it can and will hurt you if you use it improperly.

Next, I turn the board over and staple along the long edges of the board pulling the utility fabric taut. Then I had a few staples towards the middle to make sure the edges of the utility fabric don't flap around. Click on the photo below to see my staple placement.

Ta Da! There you have your pressing board. Super fast and easy! I think it took me longer to get the staples out to take off the old cover than it did to re-cover the board with fresh fabric!

With such a large pressing board, I'm able to easily press my quilt tops on my pressing board without too much trouble! In case you missed it, my Hidden Stars quilt top that I was sewing along with the SAL is finished! It was such a breeze to press on my pressing board! If you missed the SAL, don't worry all the blog posts and videos in the Facebook Group will still be there!