Day Twelve: laptop bag

Hey guys, I know this is a day late; I did this yesterday, on actual Day Twelve, but right before I finished there was a bit of an emergency (non-craft related) and I was with someone at the hospital for quite some time. Everything's okay, but we had to wait around for 8 HOURS for tests. Boo hospitals. One of the ambulance ladies we passed whilst wandering the halls commented that Surrey Memorial is the slowest hospital of all time, which does not instill confidence when I think about where I would end up if I had an emergency. It was actually quite an interesting experience, capped off with a girl in handcuffs and her police escort, but you'll have to check my other blog for the details. :)

ANYWAY. So, laptop case. Previously, I've made fun of people who kept that little plastic sheet on their laptops to protect them, because I thought they looked nerdy. However, when I got my tiny laptop, and it came with a little plastic sheet, I left it on... and naturally got made fun of by all the people I had made fun of before. I didn't want it to get scratched when I shoved it in my purse with my keys! And then I realized that I should have something more to protect it, especially when I brought it to Whistler and my dad crammed it in the trunk because he forgot it was there even though I told him. So I am going to create a laptop case!

I saw plans for this on the internet somewhere, but when I got to thinking about it, how hard could it really be? It's just a rectangle, I don't need instructions. 

Materials:

- fabric (Value Village)

- foamy stuff I found in my garage that my dad uses to wrap his framed pictures in

- sewing machine

- ruler and pen to mark fabric (see, I've learned stuff! No more sharpie!)

The first thing I did was measure my teeny tiny laptop, to make sure I got the dimensions right. Then I drew a rectangle out on the fabric, and THEN I put my laptop on that rectangle and folded it over, just to make sure it would fit. 

Then I folded over the fabric and cut out one long rectangular piece - I was going to cut out two separate pieces, one for each side of the case, but thought I would have to do less sewing if I just made it a long piece, folded it over, and sewed up the edges. Does that make sense? Anyway, you'll see from the pictures.

I layered the fabric and the foamy stuff I found in my garage, with hopes that the foamy stuff would protect my laptop from various attacks. I pinned the three layers together in a few places, but I suggest you pin them together in LOTS of places, because my sewing ended up a little bit crooked and the fabric bunched up in some places. And also iron the fabric.

Then, I think because I was sewing too fast (as this machine is wont to do), the thread mysteriously disappeared and my mother had to come find it for me. And then, I accidentally sewed way off on an angle, so much so that my laptop would not be able to fit in the case anymore. So I had to yank it all out. Boo.

Then I sewed it properly, in a rectangle, but I made sure to leave space at the top to overlap the laptop, like a lid. I searched for a long time in my room for snaps I KNOW I bought a while ago, but I couldn't find them, so I think I'm going to close it with velcro. That'll be easier, anyway, for a lazy person such as myself. 

This is what I meant by folding it over. And also the previous folding over, at the bottom, so I only had to sew the sides. There's all sorts of bits sticking out on the edges, so I trimmed them, but I wasn't too worried because the next step is to flip the whole thing inside-out and stick a laptop inside!

So basically it's perfect. I'm amazing! Except that the top looks a bit rough, so before I buy the velcro, I'm going to sew on another layer of the same fabric to make it look more tidy. And, on the one side there's a bit of fabric that didn't quite make it in the sewing machine, but I'm either going to glue or hand-sew that part. Hey guys, I made a laptop case!

Day Twelve Highlights: success! and wonderful fabric I got for super cheap.

Day Twelve Lowlights: long waits at the hospital, losing thread in the sewing machine, untidy edges.

Tomorrow (which is actually today): adding a topper and velcro