Laptop Sleeve With Button

For my passion project in Design and Make Technologies, I made a laptop sleeve. I was motivated to do this because I had previously just been stuffing my laptop in my backpack, which led to it having some abrasions. A laptop sleeve with a button to close it seemed the most optimal as it lets the bag hold it more securely. It's also more theft-proof than having a dedicated laptop bag, which does not necessarily fit inside other bags.

1. Inner lining fabric (in my case, a plain pink fabric)
2. Outer patterned fabric (in my case, Houndstooth)
3. Foam
4. Scissors
5. Pins
6. Thread
7. Sewing machine
8. Embroidery machine

Measure the fabric and foam pieces to be cut out. The flap can be any height, but I would recommend around 1/3 of the length of the main rectangular piece.

I have a 2020 Intel MacBook Air which is 8.3x12, so I ended up with 10.3x15 inches for the main rectangular pieces and I decided on 5 inches for the flap.

1. Cut out one piece of houndstooth fabric and one piece of plain pink fabric according to the length and width of the longer panel from the mockup.
2. Cut out one piece of houndstooth fabric and one piece of plain pink fabric according to the length and width of the shorter panel from the mockup.
3. Cut out three pieces of foam with slightly shorter length and width for each panel from the mockup.

1. Load the embroidery machine, place the frame at the center of the short panel, and thread it according to the instructions on the machine.
2. Choose a design to be embroidered and wait for the time to elapse. Take the frame off carefully.

1. Make sure that the order of the fabric and foam pieces are as follows:
2. Plain pink fabric -> 3 foam pieces -> houndstooth fabric (design facing away from the foam)
3. Pin the fabric and foam pieces together, forming 2 panels with one longer than the other.

Using the blanket stitch method, hand-sew together the edges of each panel.

1. With the plain pink fabric facing inward, fold the open edge of the short panel by around 1cm.
2. Use a running stitch on a sewing machine to sew the fold.

1. Pin together the panels, with the plain pink fabric facing outward.
2. Use a running stitch on a sewing machine to sew together the bottom edge of the panels, stitching around 1cm away from the edge of the fabric.
3. Repeat step 2 for the left and right edges of the panels.

1. With the plain pink fabric facing inward, fold the top edge of the long panel by around 1 cm.
2. Use a running stitch on a sewing machine to sew the fold.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the exposed parts of the left and right edges of the long panel.

1. Mark using fabric chalk where each button should be placed on each panel to ensure proper closure.
2. Sew each button onto each panel.

Enjoy your new laptop sleeve!