Thursday, March 20, 2014

DIY Pressing Board

Hey guys!!! Today I'm going to show you how to make your own pressing board!! This is a super easy DIY project that will really make a difference in your sewing and quilting! Don't forget to check out my video where I will walk you through exactly how I made it! 


The difference between a PRESSING board and an IRONING board is HUGE! The reason you want to use a PRESSING board when quilting is you need a hard surface. An ironing board has to much give from all the cushion the put on it and pressing your fabrics on it can result in warped fabrics, which we NEVER want! The hard surface of a PRESSING board will help you PRESS your seams without having to worry about fabric distortion!

Let's get started with the tutorial:

Materials you will need are:
Piece of Plywood from your local hardware store, in any size that will fit your needs... (mine is 3/4" thick x 25" x 25")
100% cotton batting (you don't want to use polyester batting for this)
Fabric (home decor weight, duck, or canvas is ideal (I'm using duck cloth)
and an electric stapler


Step 1:
Cut your cotton batting and fabric at least 3 inches larger than the plywood on all sides.
Then layer them as follows: fabric (wrong side facing UP), batting, then center your piece of plywood as best as you can.


Step 2:
Start on any side, pull your batting and fabric taught around the plywood and place 2-3 staples along the length of that side. Repeat for each side, leave the corners alone for now.


It should look something like this...

For the board to lay flat we will need to trim away excess fabric from the corners. I should've done this before I started stapling the sides down but I didn't think about it until I got to the corners. So, if you want to cut out a squarish piece from each corner before you start you can. But this is how I did it....
I took one side of the fabric and folded it down, like the picture above shows

I started cutting right where the 2 fabrics met, make a straight cut until you reach the edge of the board.


Now, pull that section straight up...

Now cut straight across. You will end up having a rectangular shape cut off.


Fold your shortest side down, then overlap the other side and staple into place. You want to make sure you staple through all 4 layers of fabric, I put an additional staple closer to the corner because I didn't want it to come loose.

Repeat for each additional corner.


Now, flip it over and VOILA you are done! You have made yourself the perfect place to press!!!!

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial, if you have any questions make sure to leave them in the comments and I will get back to you!

Don't forget to check out the video for this tutorial (just click right on the image above!) and SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel!


~Hope y'all are having a GREAT day!!!~

3 comments:

In stitches and seams said...

looks great my hubby makes something similar, he started making me a couple extra pressing surfaces for teaching classes as not every one has one, and then a few orders came in. I like yours to a little smaller very practical
in stitches

Willow River Piecemakers said...

Hey Kelie! I am visiting from Kelli Fannin's blog...we are new followers of each other's blogs on bloglovin...so long story short, I happened to click over to see the blogs she is subscribed to and clicked on yours first...must be a Kelly thing! ;) I am a new youtuber too! There is something funky with how you are embedding your videos in your blog post, because on my iPad, they are not there...so I searched on YT and subscribed to your channel to watch. Email me if you would like some help figuring it out!

Willow River Piecemakers said...

Lol, I am back..went and followed on Pinterest and Instagram...love your stuff!