A few days ago I was desperately in need of a project to do. Because of #deadlines, I needed to find something to do that 1) wouldn’t take up too much time, 2) would be relatively simple, and 3) would be fun. So I decided to revisit something familiar: sleeves for the MacBook. In a post that I thought I posted a long time ago (but I apparently didn’t -so here is a severely backdated post), I explained how I started crocheting MacBook sleeves. They were pretty cool. I’ve carried mine around two years now, and it’s pretty worn. Anyway, I wanted to revisit making sleeves and I remembered that on my last haul at Jo-ann’s I picked up some green felt. I decided that I would use it to make the sleeve.
So here’s what I did (sorry there are no step-by-step pictures, but it really is so easy you don’t really need them).
- I used my MacBook to decide the size of the felt pieces. The sleeve is basically two pieces*.
- For the front piece, cut the fabric about an inch wider than the laptop on all sides. My MacBook is 11 and some inches by 7 and some inches (I rounded up the “and some inches”), so I ended up with a piece of fabric that was around 14×9. You don’t have to be precise. Eyeball it. Follow your heart.
- For the width of the back piece, cut the fabric about an inch wider than the width of the laptop like you did for the front piece (mine was about 14 inches). For the length of the fabric, cut about 5-6 inches more than the laptop size. Again, no need to be precise.
- TOTALLY OPTIONAL. I decided to get fancy and cut the back piece at a funky angle, to make the flap more fun. I also cut out a piece of faux leather fabric for the flap. Neither of these steps are necessary. I just felt fancy. Just know that if you go the fancy route, there are more steps that I won’t detail here.
- Sew the front piece to the back piece. To do this:
- Line up the front and back piece. The back piece will be longer than the front piece. Sew the front to the back by sewing around three sides: the left side, bottom, and right side. Leave the top open (at this point it will look like a sleeve – you can see where the laptop goes in and how the flap flops (a flap flops?) over the front.
- If my instructions were clear, you’re finished. It’s beautiful.
After making the sleeve you should feel like a rockstar.
*So what had happened was: I initially wanted to make the sleeve thicker by doubling the pieces of felt for both the front and the back. However, when I went to sew it my sewing machine was like “or nah,” and jammed up. I ended up spending a lot of time fixing the machine. If you want to do what I wanted to do, use a needle that is made for thicker fabrics. Maybe you can try a different foot for the machine, too? Shit, I’m new at this… I honestly have no idea.
Riveting-Rosie 