Pressing Table

Several years ago I started seeing "pressing tables". They were available for use during classes in local quilt shops... and several shop owners put their husbands to work making them to sell. They were large boards covered in insulbrite and assorted printed ducking that could be fitted to your ironing board.

My husband likes to tinker and make things occasionally, so I looked online and found directions and gave them to him for a rainy day project. I guess it never rained. Occasionally I would look at the ones for sale in the quilt shop, but I never saw one in a color that enticed me enough to purchase.

Early in 2011, while surfing the web, I found another set of directions that sat on legs sold by Ikea and would be much more stable than my wobbly ironing board. My husband did try to get the legs, but the problem was we have no Ikea store locally and for some reason Ikea wouldn't ship them! So I figured that was the end of it.

My husband had other ideas!

First...his Christmas wish list included a coping saw and a 3x5 sheet of OSB. I, of course, had no idea what either was! Thank goodness for the guy at Lowes on Christmas Eve... he was VERY helpful. I made my purchases and he loaded them into the van. I gift wrapped the saw and put it under the tree with a card that said the OSB was in the van for him to unload! He was very happy with his gift, but elusive when I asked him what he was going to make.


Second...He conspired with his brother who lives in the Baltimore area, near an Ikea store! We make the 12 hour drive every year at Christmas to visit family and exchange gifts. When I opened the box from my brother-in-law I had NO IDEA what I was looking at! It had been quite some time since downloading those directions... and since I'd given up on the idea of having a pressing table... well, I was totally clueless! They left me guessing for a while before finally telling me it was the legs to a pressing table! Then I knew what the OSB and the coping saw was for.

Over the last couple weeks he has spent some time down in my studio-in-progress carefully sawing rounded corners on the OSB and setting up and attaching the legs.


Recently I went to Hobby Lobby armed with my 40% coupon looking for the insulbrite and a ducking fabric I could live with. I got lucky! Granted, it's not the beefcake construction workers or cowboys that my online friends recommended, but I don't think my husband would have appreciated them. I did find this awesome fabric! I absolutely love it and I bought extra with the idea of making myself some bags to carry supplies to classes I have signed up for in the coming year.

After asking for advise from my online pals I decided to save the expense of the insulbrite... I can make LOTS of pot holders with what I have. So I covered the table with aluminum foil to protect the board from moisture, one layer of warm and natural and then my ducking.


This gets stretched nice and tight and stapled to the underside of the table.

and VOILA! I have a beautiful new pressing board!