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Thursday 6 October 2011

Sewing Spaces... Slide-Out Under Table Ironing Board



Just seen this great pair of YouTube video tutorials by Made by Marzipan (I found them via BurdaStyle) for how to make:


Images Source: Made by Marzipan
Video: Slide-Out Ironing Board and her accompanying blog post

These are well explained, clear tute's all about how to make your own pull-out ironing board. Basically, it's a mini (well depending upon the custom size you make ;) !) ironing board that thinks it's a drawer! It is attached directly to the underside your table top - so it's there to use when you need to press something in a hurry. As it's on a pair of drawer runners it simply tucks neatly out of the way when you're not using it - brilliant! 

Having one of these under your sewing table next to your sewing machine/ overlocker (serger) will be very handy. I may just see if I can squeeze one into my new sewing room.

If it were me making this then I'd tweak it to suit my needs.

I'd keep both ends of the board square (and not cut off the corners). And I'd most likely use plywood ¾"-1" (18-25mm) thick instead of "real wood" as it's hard to find solid real wood in DIY stores here in the UK (that doesn't cost the Earth anyway!). I might even consider using 18-25mm MDF for the sides (rather than the 2ft x 4ft real wood suggested) as if you sealed the edges with white iron-on edging tape and then painted  - you'd get a much cleaner finish. I'd also add a single layer of cotton or wool wadding (batting) to the of the fabric board-cover instead of the silver-coloured heat reflective fabric used. Plus, if you made 2-covers at the same time you'd always have a clean one to use whilst the other one was in the wash! You could even make an extra cover out of medium-heavy weight calico (muslin) to use when fusing fabric with iron-on interfacing - that'd save you getting a sticky mess all over your pretty cover.

When I saw it posted, I was reminded of Kathleen of Grosgrain's July '11 Small Sewing Spaces cont post about a store-bought version.

Source: bhg.com via Grosgrain via Crystal on Pinterest

And, I commented back in July in Kathleen's post about ways I thought someone could DIY a home version (and now the tutorials above provide me with a road map to do so yay!) ...

Quote: ... made me immediately go and check out pull out ironing boards (and also wall-mounted fold-down ironing boards too). The ones sold online/in stores here in the UK range from £60-£100+ GBP($98-$164 USD) ouch!

I wonder if for the style in the picture you posted (the pull-out, drawer-style) something could be made DIY style at home? I.e. using full-extension drawer slides/drawer runners and a way to mount the top of a normal regular ironing board to the top of the runners? Perhaps the runners could be mounted to a flat piece of wood, and the ironing board attached to the wood? Or if the wood were plywood perhaps it could be covered in cotton batting/wadding and then with thick cotton fabric so that it became a pull-out pressing board - that way you could dictate the size of board you wanted to use?

I've just Googled and in the US 'Home Depot' have these full-extension drawer slides (2-pack) for $12.48 per pair (Model # D80616C-ZP-W, Internet # 202200643, Store SKU # 432668)

In the UK 'Homebase' has the drawer slides/runners in different sizes (eBay has them to of course!).