US2179458A - Ironing board cover - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 7, 1939. c. RUTTENBERG 2,179.458

IRONING BOARD COVER Filed Feb. 21, 1938 reamed Nov. 1, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE IBONING BOARD COVER of Pennsylvania Application February 21, 1938, Serial No. 191,679

4 Claims.

My present invention relates to a new and useful cover for ironing boards.

Ironing board covers of muslin or other textile materials have been in use for a long time and have had the general disadvantage that it is.

diflicult to apply them to an ironing board sufflciently smoothly to avoid forming wrinkles in and launching of the material. As a. result, the working space on said boards is undesirably restricted and the ironing of garments or other clothing on such covers almost unavoidably produces creases, folds and non-smooth portions in the ironed articles. This condition is more or less inherent from the construction of the covers heretofore used. The commonest type of cover consists of a length of muslin or other suitable fabric around the edge of which a hem is formed. Within the hem an elastic is inserted which has a contracted length materially less than the peripheral length of the cover. Thus it is necessary to stretch the elastic substantially to its limit of elongation in order to apply the cover, but in applying this type of cover to an ironing board it is difllcult to distribute the material of the cover evenly and the elastic rapidly becomes fatigued, thus giving rise to the above noted and other disadvantages. It is also necessary to cut a hole in the hem in order to insert one end of the elastic and then it is necessary to sew the ends of the elastic to the cover and to sew up the aforesaid hole. While these covers are comparatively inexpensive and have enjoyed wide use, their disadvantages nevertheless have been recognized. In making such a cover it is also necessary to start with a piece of fabric which is of excess width in order to allow for the hem. This means that nonstandard widths of material must be purchased which increases the cost unnecessarily.

One of the objects of my present invention is to produce an ironing board cover which obviates the difficulties and disadvantages of known covers both from the standpoint of their construction and their cost.

Another object is to make an ironing board cover in such manner that a standard width of material can be purchased and wherein no hem is formed and hence none of the operations required which depend upon the use of such a hem.

Another object of the invention resides in producing a blank of material, such as muslin or other suitable fabric, and then attaching peripherally to the edge of such blank a stretchable rubber or elastic member by means of a simple overstitch or overseam while the stretchable member is under tension.

Another object resides in the production of an ironing boardcover which is simple and easy to make and to apply and which, when applied, requires a minimum of adjustment, since the cover automatically accommodates itself to the ironing board and automatically distributes the material of the cover uniformly over the board, thus avoiding bunching, gathers and other irregularities in the material which would interfere with proper ironing operations.

Other and further objects and advantages will be understood by those skilled in this art or will be apparent or pointed out hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein I have illustrated an ironing board cover and the various stages in the manufacture thereof in accordance with the present invention and wherein like numerals designatecorresponding parts.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a starting blank of muslin or other suitable material;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a pocket-forming member which is adapted to be attached to the blank of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing the pocket-forming member attached to the blank;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the commencement of the attaching operation wherein the stretchable member is peripherally sewed to the blank while thememher is maintained under tension and illustrating also the trimming of the blank to ultimate size just prior to the sewing operation; .12:

Flg. 5 is a perspective view of a completed ironing board cover in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 5a is a reduced section of my new ironing board cover taken on line Var-Va of Fig. 5;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a clamping member which is utilized to secure the ends of the stretchable member together; I i

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the finished cover just prior to attaching the clamp of Fig. 6 in place; and 1 Fig. 7a is a modification of Fig. 7 showinflthe ends of the stretchable member in overlapping relation.

Referring to the drawing, the blank ill of Fig. 1 represents a piece of muslin or other suitable material which is used as the starting piece for the production of ironing board covers in accordance with the present invention. It will be noted that this blank has a wide end H and a narrow end l2 and that the wide end is squared but provided with beveled connecting corners l3, whereas the narrow end is rounded.

The first step in the production of the cover of Fig. 5 after the production of the blank I. is to sew the pocket-forming piece ll of Fig. 2 to the narrow rounded end of the blank of Fig. 1, as shown in Fig. 3. The piece of Fig. 2 has a rounded side l5 which registers with the rounded end l2 of the blank l0 and the other side I. of the piece I4 is planar and the pieces I and II are united by the stitching indicated at I! in Fig. 3 which may be an overstitch or stitching of any other suitable character. I wish to note at this point, however, that the use of the pocket-forming piece I4 is optional as I may form a cover either with or without this piece depending upon the type of cover required in any given usage.

The blank III, with or without the pocket forming piece I4, is now subjected to the following operations: The edge of the blank I0 is trimmed, the removed strip being formed being shown at 18, as the blank may frequently be somewhat uneven, and at substantially the same time a stretchable member i9 is fed under tension along the edge of the blank and is sewed while in such tensioned condition to the peripheral edge of the blank by an overstitch or overseam 20.

These operations are commenced at the center of the edge of the wide end ll of the blank ill of Fig. 1, as will be clearly apparent from Fig. 4, and the material is turned and manipulated for hand sewing or in association with -a suitable sewing machine so as to apply the stretchable member while tensioned to the entire edge of the blank. As the sewing occurs and after tension is released in member l8, gathers automatically form due to the contractionof the stretchable member but the stitching is not only spaced relatively widely apart, as shown,

.but the attachment is absolutely uniform from beginning to end so that the gathers formed after the tension is relieved on the stretchable member beyond the sewing operation are also uniform and any given length of the muslin and stretchable member contain exactly the same amount of material. Thus at the outset those conditions are avoided which would result in unequal distribution of material and in unequal gathering of such material. As indicated, these operations are continued around the entire periphery of the blank until the starting point is reached at which time the operations are stopped and the stretchable member cut from the feed thereof.

This produces, as shown in Fig. 7, two ends I9 upon which for a short distance there are no stitches and in order to complete the ironing board cover the clamp 2| of Fig. 6 is placed over these ends and then squeezed together and pressed down to secure and lock the ends firmly in aligned condition. The clamp 2| consists of a short length of semi-circular metal which has serrated edges 22 and which has a plurality of triangular metal tabs 23 which are forced down during the clamping operation into the material while at the same time the serrated edges are squeezed toward each other and bent inwardly and upwardly, thereby securely locking the ends of the elastic together and at the same time securing the same to the adjacent edge of the blank.

These operations produce an ironing board cover which has the general appearance shown in Fig. 5 and which comprises body portion 24,

pocket portion 28, stretchable member I!) and the stitching referred to. This cover as formed is turned inside out and is applied to a board by inserting the narrow end of the ironing board into the pocket 25, where such a pocket is used, and then the cover is grasped along the sides and stretched moderately while drawing the hands backwardly over the material until the clamp end of the cover is drawn over the wide end of the ironing board. These operations produce in the first instance a cover which is applied smoothly and little or no additional smoothing and adjusting operations need be resorted to such as must be carried out in connection with applying known covers.

Due to the fact that the stitching is peripheral with respect to the material of the cover and due to the fact hat the stitches are spaced comparatively widely apart, i. e., of the order of 1 to V. of an inch, as compared with ordinary close substantially abutting stitches, the material of the finished cover not only automatically distributes itself evenly and uniformly when the cover is applied to an ironing board but a slight relative slippage or creeping of the stretchable member relative to the stitching is possible so as to insure uniform smooth application of the cover to the board, even when such boards vary somewhat in size or shape. That is to say, my present ironing board cover accommodates itself smoothly and automatically to ironing boards of different sizes and configurations with practically no subsequent adjusting or smoothing by hand being required.

It will be understood from the drawing in particular that the stretchable member I9 is not itself stitched but is held to the periphery of blank it within the overstitching or overseam formed by the sewing operations. This is the reason that member I! can move relatively to the stitching or cover as above described even though that stitching is quite tight, i. e., exerts transverse compressive forces upon member I9. I may, however, and prefer to maintain member I! in position along the periphery of blank In by stitching which at the same time has a slight gathering eflect. By this I mean that the member I! need only be relatively lightly tensioned as it is fed to the blank and that the stitching 20 has a slight contractive effect upon the tensioned member is so that when sewed in position it is shorter by a small proportion than in the feeding condition. After the sewing operation the member I! contracts the remaining amount which it is capable of under these conditions and forms uniformly distributed gathers in the cover thus forming an exceptionally desirable cover which need not be fully stretched during application to ironing boards.

The above is intended as'illustrative rather than limitative and I may make such modifications, alterations, substitutions or additions within the principle and scope of the invention as may be necessary or desirable to produce covers of diflerent sizes, qualities, characteristics, etc., depending upon the type desired or the use to which the cover is to be put. While I have shown the use of a pocket on the cover, this may be omitted as above indicated without departing from the invention. While I have shown the ends of the stretchable member in aligned relationship, these may be overlapped as shown at Ha of Fig. 7a. andclamped in the same way as above described 'orby the use of a slightly larger clamp. My. invention is, however, not to be understood as being limited to the use of any particular type of clamp nor need the ends of the stretchable member be entirely within the clamp.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An ironing board cover comprising a troughshaped textile body portion, a substantially circular stretchable member positioned under partial tension in contact with the peripheral edge of said textile body portion but unattached thereto, and spaced gathering overstitching passing through the said body portion adjacent the pe ripheral edge thereof and around said stretchable member to confine the latter within the said stitching without interfering with the capacity of said stretchable member to move slightly relatively to the body portion, the material of the body portion adjacent the stretchable member being in alignment with and disposed as an extension of a radius of the stretchable member.

2. An ironing board cover as defined by claim 1 wherein means is provided for clamping the ends of the stretchable member to each other and to the adjacent part of the textile body portion.

3. An ironing board cover as defined by claim 1 wherein means is provided for clamping the ends of the stretchable member in aligned position to each other and to the adjacent part of the textile body portion.

4. An ironing board cover as defined by claim 1 Whereinmeans is provided for clamping the ends of the stretchable member in overlapping relation to each other and to the adjacent part of the textile body portion.

CHARLES RUTIENBERG.

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