Monday, May 30, 2011

Sleeve for a MacBook




My brother-in-law asked me to make a sleeve for his MacBook a couple of weeks ago. 


It wasn't meant to be a carrying bag, so it's strapless. It was meant to cushion the laptop so it can dropped safely into a briefcase.


I initially considered neoprene, because I want to make everything out of neoprene, but finally decided on something more robust and less sporty.


I used fur-back felt for the lining, some headliner (stuff used for the ceiling of cars) for padding, and upholstery-grade vinyl for the outside. The vinyl is thin and soft like leather, and lovely to work with. 


The sleeve was so easy to make. The only slightly fiddly part was edging the opening. I'd wanted top-stitching, but my machine wouldn't give me what I wanted through all those layers. So I did it by hand. In order to get evenly-spaced stitches, I perforated the edges of the edging strip with a threadless needle on the sewing machine. Then I did running stitches from both sides


so that the backside looked as neat as the front.

Happy.




18 comments:

  1. I've been thinking of doing something similar, and I was wondering: where did you find the materials?

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  2. Neat trick for the edging/topstitching!

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  3. @Laura
    Laura: Everything was from Joann Fabrics, believe it or not. The fur-back felt ($5/yd) was from the felt aisle, the headliner ($20/yd) was in the "utility fabrics" section, and the vinyl ($35/yd) was from home dec. Not exactly cheap, but I bought a little over half a yard of each, and with 40% off coupons, and used less than half of each piece. I'd say the total cost came to about $10 for what I eventually used for this sleeve.

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  4. Wow... that looks so impressive! I can't believe you did all that hand stitching! Now who's being anal? ;)

    You can censor this comment if you want. ;)

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  5. @Grandma G
    Snort! Ha! I wouldn't censor this for anything!

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  6. Really nice. I may have to do something like this for my netbook.

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  7. Nice nice (as always!). And describing your process of attaching the binding as "slightly fiddly" is quite funny when you read the rest of the paragraph, but I get it -- I'm the same way. : )

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  8. That looks brilliant. Love the tip about punching the holes with a threadless needles. I gotta try that!

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  9. Using the threadless needle to make holes for handstitching even very clever idea - will store that one in the back of my mind for future reference!
    craftysquirrelnz

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  10. That is really nice, thanks for sharing, I am sure he loved it!

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  11. @Karin @ madebyk
    He he, K: yes, I thought it was a very Minnesotan to say it. I tried three different kinds of needles: universal, denim and topstitching, and three different thread combinations of top-and-bobbin thread: top-stitching and regular. All no go. I think it was the rubber layer in the headliner. All that experimenting was the actual fiddly part. The hand-sewing bit itself was quite unfiddly, by compariosn.

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  12. It's so neat and perfect and even, looks "store bought" like non crafters would say

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  13. Love the way you did the top edge

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  14. This is so elegant! I've made laptop sleeves, but mine are very clearly amateur - yours would look great anywhere!

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  15. That looks great. I'm always scared to use vinyl because its so touchy.

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  16. hello Lier! im' Pamela, an italina girl 29 yers old!
    i read all your blog than this time!!! it's wonderfull!! you are very goog
    to usa a sewing machine and create grat tool for your girls' chids!!!
    ^___________^

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