DIY ~ laptop sleeve

Last week I've made myself a new laptop sleeve! I've had this idea for a long time, cause the old one was actually not more than a T-shirt I cut and sewn to size. It was already shredded at the corners..

Awhile ago my mom got her hands on some interior fabric samples from a store. She said the best ones were already gone, but there are still some little jewels in there ^_^
So I've got a whole bag of samples. The nice part is, you have the same patterns in the same dimensions, but in different colors. It's a fun way to mix and match!
I've also made a little purse to hold my passport, phone and other stuff. It was perfect for my holiday in Spain! This is slightly more difficult project so that will be up after this. I'm also planning om making a shoulder/tote bag. So keep tuned for that as well ;)

In this tutorial I will show you how to make this laptop sleeve! Including measurement instructions so you can make your own custom pattern :)

And that's about it! 

This is the first time I made a tutorial like this, so I can use any kind of feedback ^_^ are the pictures/drawings clear?

I will also tell a bit more about this particular design

So, I choose four sheets of interior fabric. One sheet wasn't big enough to cover one side of my laptop. On the other hand, 1.5 sheet fitted perfectly!

The measurements I explained earlier are for the final fit. They don't have to exist of only one single fabric! You can mix and match to reach your desired look :)

So here's a picture where I pinned the 3 pieces of the outside part together.

I could have cut the black part in half and sew it to the blue and green piece to end up with a clear front and back piece. But since the sheets were a tight fit, I decided to just fold the black fabric.

Make sure you try and see if your laptop fits in your sleeve during the process!

Next I sewed the blue part to the green part, so it formed a tube.

Notice the white stickers on the fabric? They were very sticky and I waited to the final end before removing them. Maybe not the best move. Make sure you work with clean fabric ;)

Since the outside fabric is quite sturdy, I used some normal thin black fabric. If you also want a fun inside you can always opt for a more colorful lining. This was just what I had lying around.

First I wanted to place the cover like this. But there were two things I didn't like. The red, white, blue reminded me a little bit too much of the Dutch flag. Other thing was that the seam would not perfectly align when I finished most of the parts.

So I opted for the design you saw in the previous pictures ^_^

I thought of several kinds of closing options, buttons, magnets etc. But I thought that would only be annoying in your bag. A smooth surface works better. So I tucked the flap in and that actually works pretty good! 

Hopefully you enjoyed this tutorial. Please let me know what you think of it! ^_^

And if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Bye bye

Anne Lien