Padding for Sleeve Board

Hi Creative People,

Do you know how you have something that has not been working for you and you just deal with it until you feel like dealing with it? Well, my day have come to deal with this problem. To make a long story short, I purchased this sleeve board a couple of years ago and when I used it, I hated it because the padding on the board was very thin. Instead of increasing the padding like I should have done a couple of years ago, I just keep using it until the imprint of the grate showed up on one of my projects. ugh!

I dropped everything to deal with this problem I should have dealt with a long time ago!

I took a picture...hopefully you can see the steel grate on the first picture.

In the above photo, you can tell the cover is in pretty decent shape so I just decided to increase the padding only. I used 100% cotton batting, this is ideal on any surface when you use constant extreme heat. I flipped the board upside down and traced around it leaving about 1" margin to cover around the edges of the board. Then I removed the cover...look at the imprint of the grate on the padding...that's exactly what my garment looked like! 

I used two pieces of cotton batting and place it on top of the grate and stretched the cover back over the sleeve board...

...and voile' it's a whole lot better now! Can you tell the difference? It's much thicker and I am almost sure that I won't see any grate marks on any of my garments for a while.

I have a few final thoughts on this particular sleeve board that I want to share. There are a couple of things I don't like. The first thing, the padding when I initially purchased it, was already way too thin! Second, the bar that is angled to help the board stay up, is in my way, I can't get the whole garment past the bar or fit the whole board in some narrow spaces. And finally, the bottom feet get in my way when I try to press skinny jeans, I can't get the full length of the leg on there. I have to press as far up as I can then remove the pants and put them in the other way and press as far down as I can that is super annoying because some times the board is too wide to fit. Despite the things I don't like about it, I will be using it until it falls completely apart. Maybe some day in the future, I will invest in the more professional one that does not have the obstruction in the center. Just my opinions and challenges with this board.

Thanks for reading! Happy Sewing!