Wildebeests: Ironing Board

I suppose I should explain the title, since you'll be seeing it a lot.  The short version is, I have a LOT of hobbies, mostly involving building/sewing/painting/decorating - and my friends poke fun sometimes, in a good-natured way.  One of them said, a few years ago, that I could make a Wildebeest out of chicken wire and 2x4s, LOL.  Dunno where in her brain that one came from, but it cracked us up, and the joke stuck;  so nowadays I call my smaller, stand-alone projects "wildebeests".  It's all very silly, but I like silly, so, there you have it.  :o)

Anyway, allow me to show off a simple, quick project that I did over the past Winter - the project, in fact, that in thinking about finally made me give in and start a blog. :)

Mini-Ironing Board

I have a small, table-top ironing board that I use in my sewing room. I bought it at a thrift shop about ten years ago, and it had definitely seen better days.  It was stained and scarred, the fabric was tearing, and the foam padding underneath was worn out and disintegrating.   I give you Exhibit A:

Grosssss.  

However, I just happened to have some cheery damask-print cotton lying around, and some thick felt padding material left over from an older project.  It was a cinch to open out the old cover, press it flat, and use it as a pattern for a new pad and cover.  I made a simple hem casing all the way around and cinched the cover around the board with a drawstring.  

Much better, yes? 

Added bonus:  it coordinates with the "new" color scheme that I've been slowly introducing to my craft room, piece by piece.  I have a full-size ironing board I plan to re-cover sometime soon, as well.

My craft room is probably the slowest redecorating project I've ever taken on - I started it without really intending to redecorate the room at all; and I've continued to work on it one small piece at a time for the past seven (eight??) months.  That'll be its own post, though, in the near future.  If I showed you pictures now without any stunning "after" shots you'd probably think I'm crazy.

You know, just in case the wildebeest thing didn't already lead you to that conclusion.  ;)