Hey all! In case you didn’t know, this is not the first blog I’ve attempted. It’s just the first semi-successful one. In my first blog, File It Under Miscellaneous (awfully long title), I had three posts. The first one was a, “Hey blagosphere, I’m here!” the second was a cool laptop sleeve tutorial, and the third and final post was a promise to blog more often. Whoops.
The point is that I decided to delete the blog, but I’m reblogging the tutorial because I’d like to preserve it for future generations of bloggers.
I guess recycling blog posts is my way of being environmentally friendly. Just kidding, it’s only laziness. Here we go.
From August 19, 2010 ——–
I recently purchased my very first MacBook, and because I was completely in love with the thing, I began to search for ways to protect it. I already owned a fancy laptop backpack, but I was concerned about scratches and dings to its wonderfully glossy aluminum surface.
After some research, I discovered that protective sleeves for my MacBook could run as high as forty bucks, and even after the price, sleeves for my tiny 13″ were scarce. I had just blown a solid grand on my laptop, so it’s not like I had money to burn. One day while I was searching, I discovered that a seller on Etsy had created her own, and the wheels in my head started spinning…
LAPTOP SLEEVE
Materials:
Fabric. It doesn’t particularly matter– mine is fleece, the one I saw on Etsy was made out of ribbed cotton. It’s your choice! ***Make sure you have enough material to cover all sides of your laptop TWICE.
Sewing machine.
Thread.
Scissors.
And I’d recommend some sort of measuring device, be it a ruler or a tape or some string.
Step 1: Cut the fabric.
I laid my laptop out on the fabric and left about an inch and a half on one side and the top, so it looks like figure A. If you’re more anal than I am (like my mother, who assisted me in the making of this project) you can measure them.
Make sure that there is enough to cover BOTH sides of the laptop, which you can accomplish by flipping the laptop as if you were wrapping a present, as demonstrated in figure B. Leave at least two inches at either end of the fabric.
Step 2: Cut another piece of fabric identical to the one you just cut.
Step 3: Sew the outer ends of the fabric together as in figure C. I recommend pinning them together first.
Step 4: Turn it inside out. Now you have two nice, clean edges.
Step 5: Fold the fabric in half so that the two edges meet, and then sew the FOUR layers of fabric together along the sides, as in figure D. Remember that you can always sew it again to make the sleeve smaller!
Step 6: Turn it inside out and enjoy!
Simple, classic, and easy. What’s not to like?
You can customize your laptop sleeve in a variety of ways. For example:
- Use one piece of patterned fabric and one piece of fleece
- Add a closure of some sort. A button and a ribbon make a nice toggle, and it could also accommodate a zipper!
- My dad suggested finding some sort of non-slip material and attaching it to the inside of the sleeve so that your laptop won’t fall out. The only thing I can think of is craft foam, or maybe the material mousepads are made out of…
Essentially, the possibilities are endless.
Loryn with a Y 