
My daughter Domi had no case or bag for her laptop (It disappeared when she loaned it to a ‘friend’). This amazing and generous daughter of mine bought me a laptop recently. This month we attended a bloggers book evening at Scoobs at Monte Casino, there she won a Kobo Glo e-reader, sponsored by Books Live. I decided to make a laptop sleeve for her and the best practice run would be to make a cover for the Kobo first. I got the idea when I saw this blog post with instructions, I was too lazy to follow her instructions exactly so you can follow hers or mine. Thank you to A Beautiful Mess for the idea.
As sizes vary you can work out the size of the fabric that you need by doing the following. On a very thin device such as a reader or tablet add 3 cm or 6cm for a laptop to the actual width of the item, for the height (the measurement which includes the pointed flap) double the height + half, for example if your device is 10 cm wide and 20 cm high the fabric which you cut will be 13 cm x 50 cm. For a laptop which is about 2cm deep add an extra 6 cm to the height so that it’s not too tight.
My instructions are for a laptop 38 cm (w) x 27 (h) external dimensions
WHAT YOU NEED
2 pieces 44 cm x 74 cm fabric
1 piece 44 cm x 74 cm batting (quilty stuff)
1.7 m bias binding or 4.5 cm wide strip of fabric. If you are using a strip of fabric as bias binding, zig zag both long sides of the fabric to prevent fraying.
closure (velcro, press stud, ribbon tie, button)
INSTRUCTIONS
Cut 2 pieces of fabric and 1 piece of batting (quilty stuff). To cut absolutely straight I pull a thread in the fabric, to get all pieces exactly the same size cut 3 layers at same time, making sure that they are all flat.
Take the batting and fold in half, cut this to a point 18 cm from one end
Use your batting as a template to cut the point on the 2 pieces of fabric.
With right sides of the fabric facing out, place the batting between the 2 pieces.

On the straight side opposite to the point stitch on bias binding. To do this, with right sides of fabric and binding together stitch with zig zag or overlocking stitch 1 cm from the edge of binding. Fold the binding over to opposite fabric side, fold bindingn 1 cm under and stitch close to the edge with straight stitch.
Now fold the edge with bias binding up to where the fabric begins to taper point. Pin in place
With the back of the sleeve facing up (the fold underneath) Starting at one bottom corner fold bias binding over 1 cm at one end and stitch all the way around 1 cm from edge to the other bottom corner using zig zag or overlocking stitch, ending with binding folded over 1 cm again. Fold the binding over to opposite fabric side, fold bindingn 1 cm under and stitch close to the edge with straight stitch.
Use the closure of your choice to keep the flap in place when closed.
You have a really amazing daughter. The sleeve looks great. I follow A Beautiful Mess on Bloglovin – I love the stuff they have on their blog, not that I will ever make any of it, but love it never the less
Thank you, she is very special, a wonderful daughter. I must look at more of the stuff on A Beautiful Mess, I stumbled upon it when I was trying to find instructions on how to make a replacement bag for my Kirby, haven’t tackled that job yet
Very clever! I love the end result.I am lousy with a sewing machine, but was able to bling up and personalise plain cheap ones bought from one of the China Malls.
Ah that sounds very nice, would love to see a pic
Really pretty Sula
Thank you Cat
This is sooo pretty Sula. I’m hopeless with a sewing machine and have made most material project with fabric glue instead. Should really go for a sewing course so I can make such pretty items too.
Will definitely check out A Beautiful Mess too. DIY and crafting is growing on me.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
That’s super! I don’t have a sewing machine but this looks like a great option.
Thank you Heather, I love my sewing machine, it has paid for itself a few times over just with repairs.