On our first Christmas together as a married couple, my husband was fabulous in shopping my Christmas list. He had no idea what a dress form or a sleeve board could be, but after calling my mom and talking to the ladies at the fabric store, he got me a top-of-the-line dress form and a sturdy Dritz sleeve board. A sleeve board is a small ironing board for pressing tight places like armholes and sleeve cuffs. After 38 years, the cover on the sleeve board is a bit worn:
I would show you the padding that was under the board, but it disintegrated when I removed it from the board. Time to put some of my scrap fabrics to good use! For this project I will need:
- The now naked sleeve board (shocking!)
- A pen or pencil or chalk for marking
- Fusible fleece for the pad
- Cotton batting (some call it wadding) for the pad
- Cotton muslin for the cover (Don't use synthetics. Cotton can take the high heat from an iron.)
- Shears
- For sewing, we will also need thread, a drawstring/cord, and 2 cord stoppers (optional, just makes it easy to remove the cover for washing.)
If you are not familiar with fusible fleece, it is a thicker version of fusible interfacing. This is what I used:
Using the sleeve board as a pattern, I traced the top and bottom boards' outlines onto the fleece and cut the pieces out.
I then used the fleece pieces as a pattern to cut out cotton batting just 1/4 inch larger than the fleece pieces. Placing the fleece with the fusible side against the batting, I followed the directions for fusing the fleece and batting together with a hot iron. Now the padding for the cover is done.
Next comes the outer cover. For this, I used the padding as a guide and traced lines about 2-2.5 inches bigger all around. These pieces have to wrap around to the backs of the boards and stay secure with a drawstring.
Now the cutting is done. Sewing is in progress and I have shared those pictures in another post.
