Recycled Ironing Board Cover: Buffet Hot Pad Tutorial

Many of us have made or are making our own ironing board covers. Want to recycle your old one? I used mine over the weekend to make a giant buffet hot pad for our annual summer pool party. I run out of pads to put under the hot dishes people bring for the party.



The fabric is a summer-themed cotton, perfect for a pool party. It’s the same I used for my covered-button magnets project.

Buffet Hot Pad Tutorial

1. Cut off the extraneous materials around your old ironing board cover, keeping the padding materials in the large middle section. You can always buy the insulated fabric used for ironing boards if you haven’t a spare cover.
2. Cut out a 14-by-36-inch rectangle from the ironing board padding materials, set aside for now.
3. Cut two 15-by 37-inch pieces from your choice of fabric.
4. Place right sides of the front and back together and sew around the edges using a ½-inch seam allowance, leaving about an 8-inch or larger opening in the middle of one long side.
5. Turn right-side out through the opening. Press.
6. Now take the padding material you set aside in Step 2 and insert it into the new casing. Smooth out.
7. Slip-stitch the opening closed.

I opted to tie sections of the mat with red embroidery floss so I can wash it when needed and not worry about the padding bunching up.

It would be fun to make buffet hot pads in more sophisticated or seasonal fabrics (e.g., Halloween or Christmas), too. I’ll probably do that later in the year.

If you prefer a PDF version of my tutorial, you can download it here. Note: there’s a linkable list of my tutorials in the right-hand column of my blog.