One was as shoe liners. UK size 3 is the closest I can get to what is size 5 in the US and probably with age I need more of a 5.5. Size 3 fits better than it used to but I need liners for a lot of them so I don't slide around inside. Unfortunately, I found that the shoe liners I cut from carpet underlay were far too thick for this purpose. So I moved on to the next project.
We have two ironing boards in this house and I can't recall why. One is standard size, lives in the kitchen pantry and Bill uses it to do most of the ironing that gets done in our house. It gives him something to do. I don't mind ironing at all except when it comes to sheets and he's the one who likes ironed sheets so I let him get on with it.
The one in my craft room is extra wide. I remember Bill bought it and came home with the story that two little old ladies in the queue behind him remarked 'That's an unusually large one' and he turned around and said he didn't hear that often from ladies, which made them giggle. I was just glad I wasn't with him.
It wasn't terribly long before the pattern of the metal grid showed through the thin padding and the heat-proof cover. It actually marked the pattern on the fabric being ironed. So I put a couple of fluffy terry cloth towels in for extra padding and added a wide binding to the cover so it would fit over the layers. This worked for a few years, but of course the towels got flattened and the grid showed through again.
I decided the time had finally come to tackle this.
I was impressed at the thin foam padding still being in one piece even though it was so deeply marked. As you might guess, I didn't throw it out, but put it in a bag in which I collect tiny bits of fabric and thread, thinking it might be useful as stuffing one day.
My old friend, Joanne, crocheted hanger covers after padding the wire hanger with foam rubber. Like me, I doubt she bought the padding, it was no doubt left from something else she had. I still have the hangers she made for me.
I pinned the padding to my carpet underlay and traced it with a felt tip marker. Then I put the padding aside and moved the project to the top of the ironing board. I'm too old to be crawling around on the floor any more than I have to.
It was a challenge finding something to cut the thick underlay. Scissors hurt my hand and I wasn't prepared to wait for Bill to hunt his utility knife down. I had my own utility knife but wanted to keep it sharp and doubted I had extra blades for it. I went through my collection of X-acto knives to find the one I did have more blades for and then hacked my way around the outline. I ended up doing this twice as the old padding must have once gone over the edges of the board, but this underlay was way too stiff for that. Eventually I had the size I wanted.
Then it was a matter of re-stringing the cover. I'd cut the old cord, made from 3 strands of some sort of silk or cotton crochet thread. I didn't throw it away but doubled up each of the single strands and added it to my ball of short bits, for knitting Innocence smoothie hats. I have made these for Age UK for several years now. Frankly, though, they don't really serve any practical purpose other than to net Age UK 25p for each one made. Kids collect them but I expect they eventually find themselves in the trash bin, so why waste good yarn on them? Scrappy yarn makes quite interesting hats and pom poms after all.
Anyhow, my recent gifts of fabric scraps have piled up in the corner and so I can't get to the crochet thread collection at the moment. Instead I used a skein of orange embroidery thread for the new cord. I tied it to a large paper clip to slip it through the binding. I wrapped it around a metal bar I've had for a while, part of another collection someone gave me, to help pull it tight without cutting my hands.
Lo and behold, a long cap came off this bar to reveal a needle fine crochet hook. I can only imagine trying to crochet with sewing thread, this hook is so fine. I never knew that's what this bar actually was!
So, I now have a nicely padded ironing board, ready to do some sewing! It "only" took me three years to do this and it feels almost that long since I sewed anything. I'm looking forward to it.
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