Have I mentioned how much I love my new computer? Seriously, it’s awesome. And since there’s less and less bloggable knitting around here, I thought I’d write up a little info on the laptop sleeve I sewed.
It’s basically just a zippered pouch, with some extra padding. I have a 13″ Macbook and used pieces of fabric with the dimensions 14.5″ x 10.5″ – I cut out a piece of cardboard to use as a pattern.
For the outside, I used a couple of Denyse Schmidt cottons, as well as a random scrap for the pocket. One side is solid with the pocket; the other side has two fabrics joined off-centre.
I really love that side! I just sewed the two pieces straight down, then trimmed to fit the cardboard cutout. I used a fairly light iron-on interfacing on the exterior layers (I couldn’t find my firmer interfacing, but it probably turned out better this way). The lining is an awesome pink silk dupioni.
For the pocket, I sewed two pieces together along the long edge with RS together, so the pocket would be lined. Then I just began following the zippered pouch tutorial, there – believe me, I made a lot of mistakes! I had to rip out quite a few (like 4) seams, and that is not fun with a very fray-y silk lining. Oy.
Anyway, I sewed the pocket inbetween the two exterior layers when they were joined, and then I just pinned the two layers of wool felt (cut to fit inside the seam allowances) to the wrong sides of both pieces of the exterior fabric (with the pin heads on the outside of the pouch!). Then I turned the whole thing right side out, sandwiching the felt between the exterior and lining. Then I sewed up the hole in the lining and also pushed in the corners of the zipper a bit.
The case is really quite padded – when empty, it’s about the same thickness as my computer! I haven’t sewn down the felt to anything, so it can sort of slide around a bit – not really ideal. But, I’m feeling kind of lazy about the whole thing now, so it’ll probably just stay the way it is. I had originally thought of sewing the felt in along the sides and bottom when attaching the exterior fabrics together, but that would make for super bulky seams (and didn’t fit in my sewing machine, anyway).
The whole way along I kept thinking “this isn’t going to work, it’s going to be too small, blah blah” but it actually worked out just perfectly!
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