Pressed for Space?

Have you ever found yourself in need of a small, portable ironing table; one that you can keep right beside your sewing machine to quickly press open small seams as you go? I have. It seems that I am always up and down, from my chair to the ironing board and back; although it's good exercise, it's less than efficient. I was inspired by Lori Holt's tutorial on DIY ironing boards while watching her YouTube channel. I decided that making my own was the ideal solution, I could tailor the size of my ironing surface to an existing folding table, leaving the perfect amount of space on one side for my cordless iron. Rather than attach permanent feet to mine I recruited Mr. G. to help me design feet that would be removable so that this could be completely flat for storage and/or transport (retreats!) if need be. 

It's handy to have a resident woodworker! He turned me some super-cute little feet on his lathe, added the hanger bolts and placed threaded inserts into the bottom of the half-inch thick plywood base.

I added a layer of heat-resistant ironing board fabric next to the opposite side of the base, a layer of Insul-brite and followed those with two layers of cotton batting; all cut to size. 

From there we wrapped the top, cover fabric over all the layers, around the edges and stapled it to the bottom. That's all there was to it, I screwed the legs in and... voilà! Custom sewing table!

You can see here how it sits up nicely off the surface of the folding table; this provides a bit of extra space for tools or whatever when I am in a retreat situation or wherever space is at a premium.

This worked out so well that I couldn't stop at just one!

Together we made up two more for gifts, each with their own matching drawstring bag for the feet. Inspiration abounds, I'm never lacking for ideas; isn't it great, though, when a plan comes together? 

What is it that has inspired you lately?

Life is Good!