Hey there! Many of you may have seen me post on facebook, twitter, instagram whatever, that I made a laptop cover for my new Macbook Air! And as promised, here is the tutorial + some basic tips and tricks.
In case you didn't catch the link up there ^^^ just click here for the full tutorial from Design Sponge.
But in this post I'll include my own tips and things you should probably know before starting this tutorial for yourself.
I got my fabric at JoAnn's fabric store, in the other tutorials I've seen online they've just used a thicker material that would provide a lot of protection - such as wool - and they always have a liner for the inside. Personally I wanted to make my cover look a little more Vera Bradley, so I opted for quilting material. Which is thick, as requested by the tutorials, and quilting fabrics are two sided so you don't have to buy several different fabrics if you don't want too.
In my case I just bought one yard of the quilting fabric you see above, although I might have been able to do it for 3/4 of a yard. But this way I have enough extra fabric to do something interesting with! (If I ever get off my lazy butt that is...)
I followed the pattern to the letter. At first I was worried because the quilting fabric looked so much thicker than the wool they used in their pictures, but eventually I was like, "Screw it. I'm doing this." And I promise you it worked out fine.
I cut out 4 pieces of fabric to the exact dimensions they tell you to (Tip #1 - make sure you cut the fabric EXACTLY. I did it a little wonky and it caused me grief in the next steps)
The first challenge is the zipper, my zipper was about 14-15 inches long I believe, which was just a little shy of my measurements for my fabric, so I opted to put the zipper at the shorter end of the case instead of the long way (opposite of what they did in the tutorial, but it really doesn't make a difference).
Tip #2 - when aligning the zipper, it's okay if it doesn't completely come to the edge/corners of your material. I was a little worried about that but It turned out to be not a big deal.
This is what the seams look like on the zipper when I was all done with that part. Honestly I should be receiving awards right now for this zipper - it's kind of amazing.
At this point, I was so relieved that I got that zipper in and it was working, that I kinda sorta maybe just a little bit raced through the ending and ended up with a weird mess of fabric that I somehow contorted into a proper case.
Tip #3 - When sewing up the lining and exterior fabrics, make sure to read the directions VERY CAREFULLY. I just sorta skimmed and then did stuff. It was whatever, but I kind of wish I had been more careful about sewing up onto the edge of the zipper, because there's a little hole in mine where the zipper ends sometimes stick out.
This is the side seam when I was done sewing both the lining and the exterior, and finally flipped it right side out.
My laptop fits in it perfectly!
Tip #4 - Keep on using your laptop to make sure that the seams aren't too tight, or too close together so that the rectangle shape you make is too small for your laptop! The tutorial doesn't give you an exact inch mark to start the seam at, so it's really up to you!
It's a good thing you can't see it, but I will tell you, that the right side of the lining is completely not sewed. I just stuffed it in there without sewing it, and I am totally not ashamed to say that.
The inside fabric/lining/other side of the quilted fabric.
The completed project!
Please excuse my crazy eyes, it was a little late and I was a little excited about finishing the case.
Dueces
