It’s finally that time, readers. We’re getting ready to bring our National Sewing Month series to a close and choosing a winner tomorrow. Are you still hoping it’s you? Remember, you have to leave a comment under any (or all) of our National Sewing Month 2012 blog posts. One lucky winner will receive our mystery grand prize! Today, we’re sharing one last tutorial with you. Since we know you love your gadgets, here’s a project that’s sure to come in handy.
To read more about Lelanie and to find her entire project list, visit her designer profile.
Hi there, friends! I am Lelanie and I blog at To Sew With Love, To Cook With Love and Villa Portillo. Last year, I have also guest posted for the National Sewing Month celebration here at Fave Crafts and I showed everybody how I made this On-the-Go Medicine Kit. I am glad that some people found it helpful. This year, I am proud and humbled to be invited to guest post again for the National Sewing Month event. I would also like to thank everybody at All Free Sewing and Fave Crafts for the opportunity and the continuous amount of traffic I get daily from them! You guys are awesome!
Today, I will share with you how to make a Reversible Laptop Sleeve.
I actually made this laptop sleeve earlier last year and all the photos have been in my computer all this time. I have always been telling myself I will post the tutorial one of these days and I think, the timing is great as this is also a great back-to-school project!
This project is very easy. You can adapt it to your own needs and can actually make one for your laptop, e-reader, tablet or any iGadget. You can use zipper, velcro or buttons for the closure. Use your creativity and adapt it to your necessity! If you don’t have any batting on hand, you can use some felt as padding, too. You can make it reversible or non-reversible. It’s all up to you!
The photos I will show you for this tutorial was of a reversible laptop sleeve I made for a 17.5″ laptop. Feel free to change the measurement according to your needs. Just make sure to allow some allowance when cutting your fabric pieces. For example, for my 10″ Dell mini Inspiron laptop, my fabric pieces would be:
WIDTH: 27 cms (the width of the laptop) + 1 cm (0.5 cm allowance on each side because I will sew the pieces 0.5 cm away from the raw edge) + some room for the battery charger = 39 cms.
LENGTH: 19.5 cms (length of the laptop) + 1 cm (0.5 allowance on each side where I will sew the pieces 0.5 cm away from the raw edge) + 3 cms room allowance = 23.5 cms.
For this laptop sleeve, I used:
- Fabric A: 39 cms x 23.5 cms
- Fabric B: 39 cms x 23.5 cms
- For embellishment, some scrap fabric, ribbons, felt
- Velcro for closure
- 2 Batting pieces
The how-to:
Iron on interfacing to the wrong side of all the fabric pieces. This, however, is optional. You can still go on and make your gadget sleeve even without any interfacing on hand.
Get the tab pieces. Sew on the velcro piece where it should be if you plan to use velcro. Bring them together, right sides together and wrong sides outwards. Sew the pieces together by sewing on both longer sides (don’t sew the one of the short side) and sew on one short side by sewing a round shape. This, again, depends whether you want it round or just straight.
Clip the rounded edge so it won’t get bulky when you turn it later and you will have a crisp and clean look.
Turn it inside out and sew straight stitches all through the sides.
Get one of fabric A and pin the embellishment you like on the fabric (optional). Pin the embellishment on with the sleeve’s main fabric in between the batting (or felt) and the embellishment.
Sew the embellishment on the fabric + batting.
Do the same to the other fabric. (I also sewed on embellishment as this is a reversible sleeve)
Secure the batting on the fabric by sewing both pieces together with basting stitches.
Fix the tab on one of the sleeve pieces by sewing it with basting stitches.
Get both sleeve pieces and pin them together, right sides facing together, batting facing outwards: Fabric A + Fabric A, Fabric B + Fabric B. Make sure the tab is pinned and tucked in nicely so it won’t get in the way. Sew the three sides of the fabrics except the top and make sure you leave one of the bottom sides when 4″ unsewn. This opening is where we will turn the sleeve inside out, later. Just to make sure the stitches won’t get undone, I sew zigzag stitches along the edge. Do the same to the other fabric. Remember, only one of the fabric pieces (you choose whether A or B) will have 4″ unsewn at the bottom side.
Take the bottom tip of the sewn sleeve part and sew straight stitches about 1″ away from the pointed tip. This will give the sleeve more room.
Take the bottom tip of the sewn sleeve part and sew straight stitches about 1″ away from the pointed tip. This will give the sleeve more room.
Take the bottom tip of the sewn sleeve part and sew straight stitches about 1″ away from the pointed tip. This will give the sleeve more room.
Cut the tip leaving 1/4″ of the edge intact and sew zigzag stitches on this raw edge. Do the same to all of the other tips of both sleeve pieces.
Get sleeve A and sleeve B. Place sleeve A inside sleeve B (or vice-versa) with right sides of the fabrics facing together.
Sew straight stitches all through out the top side 1/4″ away from the edge.
Sew zigzag stitches to strengthen the stitches. Zigzagged stitches make me happy! ^^)
Turn the sleeve inside out through the unsewn part at the bottom of one of the sleeves.
As you can see, just to avoid the bulk in just one side and just because I only had 2 batting pieces, I only sewed batting pieces on the embellished side. And to make sure both sides of the sleeve will have some batting, then the embellished sides are not together. I have one embellished side here:
and one embellished side opposite to the other embellished side:
Now, for the last step, sew straight stitches 1/4″ away from edge of the top side of the sleeve.
Now, you have a nice reversible laptop sleeve! A 15″ laptop (the pink one in the picture below) can even fit with some room allowance.
You can also make zippered ones and with pockets!
I hope you liked our tutorial and that you find it useful. If you like this tutorial, then don’t hesitate to visit more of our tutorials here. Thanks to all Free Sewing and Fave Crafts for having us here. We always enjoy our guest posts with you!
Have you enjoyed our National Sewing Month series? Have you drawn inspiration to create your own projects?
- 15 Quick Sewing Projects Under 15 Minutes - July 20, 2014
- What You (Almost) Forgot to Bring: Sewing Purses, Organizers, and More for Travel - July 14, 2014
- Kids and Camping Hacks: 17 Camping Crafts for Kids - July 8, 2014
