9 easy steps to sew a handy ironing board caddy!

Yesterday on QUILTsocial I showed you the easiest way to clean your iron using the UNIQUE home Iron Sole-Plate Cleaner. I have to say, I was a little embarrassed to show how dirty my Oliso PRO TG1600 Smart Iron was, so I’m pretty happy with how it looks now!

Today we’re making a handy ironing board caddy to store ironing accessories, using the Heirloom Teflon Non-Stick Applique Mat and a UNIQUE sewing Self-Gripping Fastener Strip. This is a super easy project and you can make it to match other items in your quilting studio! I’ll use the same fabric as I used to cover the DIY pressing board I made on Monday – so I’ll have at least two things in my quilting studio that match – LOL!

For this project, you’ll need about half a yard [0.5m] of fabric for the caddy and pockets and a fat quarter of coordinating fabric for the pincushion and binding. You’ll also need a small piece of batting, and something to fill the pincushion. I used crushed walnut shells, but something like rice would work just as well. You want this stuffing to be heavy so it weighs down the caddy and prevents it from sliding off of the ironing board.

Project requirements

For this project you need the following:

• ½ yard [0.5m] main fabric
• fat quarter of accent fabric for pincushion and binding
• 12″ x 34″ batting
• pincushion fill, such as crushed walnuts or rice

Step 1 – Cut your fabric

From your main fabric cut:

• 1 rectangle 9“ x 31“
• 1 rectangle 12“ x 34“ (for backing)
• 1 rectangle 8“ x 10“ (for pocket – cut two if you’d like a pocket on both ends of the caddy)

From your accent fabric cut:

• 2 rectangles 8½” x 9½”
• 4 strips 2½” x 20“ (for binding)

Step 2 – Make your quilted base

Place your 12″ x 34″ backing fabric right side down on a hard surface. Place batting on top and center your 9″ x 31″ rectangle on top, right side up. Use either Odif 505 Temporary Quilt Basting Adhesive Fabric Spray or Klassé Curved Safety Pins to baste the three layers together. Use either free-motion quilting or your walking foot to machine-quilt from one end to the other. Check out an earlier post on 2 great products to help organize your sewing machine area to see how I used this same process when making my quilted sewing machine mat.

Trim your quilt sandwich to 8″ x 30″.

Step 3 – Make your binding

Sew the 2½” x 20″ strips of accent fabric end to end with a mitered seam. Trim the excess fabric from the seam allowance, iron the seams open and fold the long strip in half with wrong sides together and press. If you need more information on making binding there are many great tutorials on QUILTsocial, Including Do you know how to bind a quilt?.

Step 4 – Make your pocket(s)

Take the 8″ x 10″ rectangle and fold it in half to make a 8″ x 5″ rectangle. Sew one 8“ piece of binding to the top (folded) edge. Fold over and topstitch just along the seam. Repeat to make a second pocket if desired.

Lay the pocket on one end of the quilted base, so the raw edges of the pocket line up with the raw edges of the base. Pin in place. If you’ve made a second pocket, line it up on the other end of the base.

Step 5 – Sew on the binding

Sew the binding to the outside edge of the base, securing the pocket(s) in place. You can either sew the binding to the front, fold it around to the back and hand sew in place, or you can sew the binding to the back, fold around to the front and machine stitch in place.

Step 6 – Make the pincushion inner and outer layers

First, fold the two 8½” x 9½” rectangles in half to make two 4½” x 9½” rectangles. On the first rectangle, sew two raw edges using ¼” seam (bottom rectangle in photo). On the second rectangle, sew the three raw sides using a ½” seam, leaving ⅔ of one end open for filling (top rectangle in photo).

Step 7 – Fill the pincushion

Using your chosen filling material, fill the inner layer of the pincushion (top rectangle in the picture) so it’s about 9/10 full. You don’t need to turn this layer right side out, just fill as shown and stitch the end closed.

Turn the other rectangle right side out. This will be the outer layer of the pincushion. Now we have to get the filled inner part of the pincushion inside of the outer layer. To make this easier, roll up your Heirloom Teflon Non-Stick Applique Mat to make a funnel shape. Insert the smaller end into the outside layer of the pincushion. Slip the filled inner bag inside of the applique mat and it’ll slide right into the outer section.

Here’s what the two layers of the pincushion should now look like.

Step 8 – Sew the pincushion closed

Fold in the raw edges of the opening and, using a slip stitch, hand sew the opening closed.

Step 9 – Attach the pincushion to the caddy

The next step is the easiest one since we’ll be using adhesive-backed UNIQUE sewing Self-Gripping Fastener Strips to secure the pincushion to the caddy!

Open the package of UNIQUE sewing Self-Gripping Fastener Strips and cut a 7“ long section of each of the hook tape and the loop tape.

Peel the adhesive backing off the hook tape.

Center the hook tape on one side of the pincushion and finger press firmly in place.

Lay the caddy on top of your ironing board with the ends hanging over the sides to determine the desired position for the pincushion. Peel the backing off the loop section of the UNIQUE sewing Self-Gripping Fastener Strip and finger press firmly in place on the caddy base.

Wait 24 hours before using the UNIQUE sewing Self-Gripping Fastener Strip to secure the pincushion to the caddy. Then, position your pincushion in place and you’re ready to use your new caddy!

As you can see, my scissors, Clover Hot Hemmer and Clover Hold It Precision Stiletto all fit nicely in the pocket on the front of the caddy. I positioned my pincushion so it’s at the back edge of the ironing board – that way there’s lots of room for my Oliso PRO TG1600 Smart Iron or my Oliso M2Pro Mini Project Iron to sit on top of the caddy. Maybe now that I have all these tools in one place, there’ll be room to actually iron on my ironing board!

I use my Oliso PRO TG1600 Smart Iron and my Oliso M2Pro Mini Project Iron a lot, and rely on it to help make beautiful projects, so having a handy ironing board caddy – made using UNIQUE sewing Self-Gripping Fastener Strip and the Heirloom Teflon Non-Stick Applique Mat – will help me be even more productive. And now that I’ve shared some of these great irons and accessories with you, I hope you’ll find ironing and pressing more enjoyable and productive too. Have fun making your own DIY pressing board and ironing board caddy, and make sure you finish up your birdhouse wall hanging in time to display this spring! See you in a couple of months for more fun on QUILTsocial.

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: 4 steps to clean your iron the absolute easiest way