You know those sewing projects that seem so straightforward and simple but turn out to be a total pain? That was this ironing mat.

I’ve been using a folded towel on a table to iron on for years. I only have a small sewing space so fitting in an ironing board would make it even more cramped when I’m sewing, and they don’t give enough surface area when ironing large pieces of fabric. The towel does an OK job at protecting the table as long as I don’t use steam, but it makes for inefficient sewing as an ironing board uses a heat reflective insulator that means you’re effectively ironing both sides at the same time. The towel doesn’t do that.

I looked at buying an ironing pad a while ago but they were too small for my needs and didn’t seem like great value so I decided to make my own. I had to buy some new fabric for this as I didn’t have any reflective insulating wadding, but I bought exactly as much as I needed and there were no off-cuts so it hasn’t added to my stash. I also invested in a walking foot because my sewing machine did not have a fun time ironing through the layers. This is where it turned out to be a pain.

I used 5 layers of fabric. The insulating wadding instructions recommended using two layers, with a layer of plain wadding in between. I didn’t have any plain wadding so I decided to use an old towel. For the outside I used some unbleached cotton-hemp blend from my stash. I pinned and basted it as well as I could but my machine kept eating thread from below and I broke a few needles. I’ve had a few projects where a walking foot would come in handy but not essential, but it became clear that there was no way I would be able to sew these layers without it and I found an off-brand version for £30 (the official branded version for my machine is an eye-watering £130!). I’ve been quilt-curious for a while so I decided to get one so I could do some quilting in the future. That made sewing the layers a bit easier but 5 layers was still a bit much so I decided to unpick what I had done so far and quilt just the reflective and inner wadding, then make a separate outer cover with the cotton-hemp blend. This would make it easier to wash too.

I’d cut the outer layers to size already so they were too small to make the case, but I still had more of the yellow twill so I created some bands to extend the size of the outer layers. I quite like the pop of yellow too, and it matches the binding of the inner layer.

It works nicely for ironing, protecting my table from heat. It still lets some steam through but much less than just the towel.

Although it felt frustrating at times with unpicking and fighting with my sewing machine, I’m pretty pleased now that it’s finished.