Ironing Board Cover (elastic attached with serger)

I bought some white napkins planning to use for the cutwork font I bought and washed them. Before I iron them, I have to replace my old dirty/burnt/sticky ironing board cover or the white napkins would be a mess (you can see how bad it it from the last pic).

I read the tutorial on sew4home and decided I didn't want to make a casing. I wanted to use my serger's elastic foot to attach elastics instead.

Normally it'd be easier to make a casing for ties, but with the elastic foot, attaching 1/4 inch elastics is so fast and enjoyable! I made 5 crib sheets and 1 playpen sheet and 2 bassinet sheets with it so quickly 2 years ago and I am eager for more projects using it.

It took me 5 minutes to find the instructions for the foot (it's been a while) and 1 minute to set up the machine, and literally 1 minute to finish sewing the elastics on! You can see from the last two pictures how it looks.

I sewed the two fabrics on with my SM and added the decorative stitches from the machine.The plaid fabric is heavy weight cotton home deco fabric and the red is cotton/linen. They are about the same weight and really look cute together!

I programmed the scissors, needle and thread as a repeating pattern. I had to add quilting stitches on both sides of the scissors as the pattern did not have the curvy lines before and after it. (Second Picture)

Decided not to add embroidery (thought about adding "Lucia's Sewing Room"on the red band) because the cover should be smooth.

It's not snug enough. It looks great from the top but not from the side. It will work just fine.

I think after several washes, if it's still not snug enough, I might redo the elastics, cutting off more fabric and tightening the screw so it gathers even more.

For those who want to try this with your serger, I recommend only adding 3 inches (instead of 5 and 1/2 inches to your pattern) and use the tightest setting for your elastic foot.