Last weekend I bought a new laptop for grad school. It was a tough call, but I went with the 13" MacBook Air. Since it is so light and fragile compared to my old computer, I wanted to make it a case to protect it a little bit.
I searched on Pinterest and Etsy for ideas, and saw some gorgeous covers. Some of my favorites are here, here, and here. All of these covers have a front pocket and button and loop closure, which seems simple yet effective. However, $30 seems a little outrageous for such a simple case, when I had the materials and skills to make my own.
It took quite a while of scouring the internet to find a tutorial on how to make this up. I probably could have figured it out on my own, but my brain is in vacation mode and didn't want to think that hard. I ended up using a combination of two tutorials: I used the dimensions from this tutorial from Behind the Red Barn Door but most of the instructions from this tutorial from Charm Stitch.
For the materials, I used two types of upholstery fabric that were in my stash. I bought the plain red fabric to make a jacket that I never made. The red and white patterned fabric is leftover from upholstering some stools. Between the layers of fabric I used some batting leftover from another project for cushioning. This was probably unnecessary, though, since I used thickish upholstery fabric for the outside, pocket, and lining. Better safe than sorry, though, right?
For the closure, I cut an old hair tie in half for the elastic and wrapped it around a button from my stash.
The case came together in one morning. The hardest part was probably turning the whole thing right-side-out at the end since there are so many thick layers. Once that was settled, I got a little nervous that it looked small, but my laptop fits perfectly! I've never had a laptop case before, so the next test will be to see how often I use it...
I searched on Pinterest and Etsy for ideas, and saw some gorgeous covers. Some of my favorites are here, here, and here. All of these covers have a front pocket and button and loop closure, which seems simple yet effective. However, $30 seems a little outrageous for such a simple case, when I had the materials and skills to make my own.
It took quite a while of scouring the internet to find a tutorial on how to make this up. I probably could have figured it out on my own, but my brain is in vacation mode and didn't want to think that hard. I ended up using a combination of two tutorials: I used the dimensions from this tutorial from Behind the Red Barn Door but most of the instructions from this tutorial from Charm Stitch.
For the materials, I used two types of upholstery fabric that were in my stash. I bought the plain red fabric to make a jacket that I never made. The red and white patterned fabric is leftover from upholstering some stools. Between the layers of fabric I used some batting leftover from another project for cushioning. This was probably unnecessary, though, since I used thickish upholstery fabric for the outside, pocket, and lining. Better safe than sorry, though, right?
For the closure, I cut an old hair tie in half for the elastic and wrapped it around a button from my stash.
The case came together in one morning. The hardest part was probably turning the whole thing right-side-out at the end since there are so many thick layers. Once that was settled, I got a little nervous that it looked small, but my laptop fits perfectly! I've never had a laptop case before, so the next test will be to see how often I use it...
Abstract
Pattern: Tutorials from Behind the Red Barn Door and Charm Stitch
Fabric: Upholstery fabric and batting from my stash
Cost: Free!
Time: 2 1/2 hours
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