Here in Australia we love BIG, in fact my kids have a book of all the big tourists attractions, you know there's the Big Banana, Big Pineapple and there are many more but my personal favorite,because it's just sooo insane is this, The Big Prawn
So my patriotic side insists that I must go big, and the Mellywood Mantra is "What you lack in talent, make up for in size!
Anyways I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a brillant way to get rid of the ironing board which is ALWAYS, in the way!
But I wanted one to fit across all the machines so it could double as a bench to fold the washing.
One problem, my machines are not the same height, it's at this point I have to let you know that the dishwasher lives in the Laundry simply because there is no room in the kitchen and hand washing dishes, it's not my thing.
So, I decided to make a board that would fit across all three machines
Australia's Biggest Ironing Board!
Getting supplies should have been the easiest part of this project, sadly this was not to be the case, Jules and I set off with just the babies to grab some wood. When we got there, Max, who is usually a very easy going baby, starts to scream, to the point where we just left.
In the car park, Julian picks him up and says I think he's pooed, I look up from putting Madeleine in her seat and I scream! Not only is Max covered in it but so is Julian, the poor mite had come down with gastro and it was everywhere. Julian starts dry retching, it starts pouring with rain, I'm trying to clean Max, in the back of the car, he wont stop crying and wriggling.
I get Max in the car and then Jule's points at me, I look down and I'm covered in you know what!
So after we scrub up and attend to Max, I got my supplies:
Fabric for the cover
Heat & bond
Sewing Machine & Accesorries
Wooden Board to fit across the machines
Old quilt - or quilt batting (cotton, not synthetic)
Digital Cutter for the shapes
Staple Gun/ Staples
Hot Glue Gun
First I cut the various shapes for the Ironing board cover and ironed them on to the white squares.
Then I sewed the squares together, Added a boarder, ran out of fabric so I added another one.
Then I took the quilt and hot glued it onto the board, then stapled it down. You want to make sure that it's pulled tight!
Then I hot glued the cover over that, in retrospect if I had of thought it through I would have been better off, sewing velcro and velcroing it down, but I'm a DIY newbie so, live and learn!
And here she is
Australia's Biggest Ironing Board!!!!
The reason she looks a little wonky as well as the ripples you can see, are a result of having my boys hold it up, it's REALLY heavy - if you look closely you'll see Samuel's hand.
For me, this is going in the diary as a Delight!
I'm loving the fact that I have a huge space to fold and sort the clothes and I love the little shapes.
Let me know what you think, DIY Delight or Disaster??
Thanks for reading,
Mel
