Neoprene Laptop Sleeve

Picture of a red neoprene laptop sleeve, with two overlapping flaps with rounded edges for closure.

View A of the sleeve; see the gallery below for a picture of view B.

A simple neoprene sleeve to protect laptops while carrying them inside bags, backpacks, etc in two views: A with rounded corners, and B with straight corners for laptops that are especially pointy.

It can be sewn by hand or by machine; view B has tight corners and sewing it by hand is recommended.

Materials

Fabric

  • A piece of neoprene about as wide as the laptop and a bit more than twice as high.

Notions

  • Strong polyester sewing thread, such as the same one used in the Modular Backpack Base.

  • elastic edge binding braid, about 2.5 times the width of the laptop;

  • regular sewing polyester thread that matches the braid.

Pattern

Measure snugly around the thickest part of the laptop both horizontally and vertically.

Get the valentina pattern laptop_sleeve.val and enter the measurements in the Variables Table.

Alternatively, for view A you can draw three rectangles: the base is half the circumference measurements, the top and bottom front are as wide as the base and 1/3 and 2/3 its height plus 3 cm respectively. Round all corners with a radius of 4 cm.

For view B, make just one rectangle, as big as the three rectangles above, and round its corners with the same radius.

You can also download an example pre-rendered pattern of view A for the Thinkpad X200, whose circumference measurements are 47 cm vertically and 65 cm horizontally.

laptop_sleeve_x200.pdf

view A, single page PDF;

laptop_sleeve_x200_tiled.pdf

view A, tiled PDF on A4.

Or view B for the Olimex Teres, with measurements 42 cm horizontally and

laptop_sleeve_teres.pdf

view B, single page PDF;

laptop_sleeve_teres_tiled.pdf

view B, tiled PDF on A4.

Instructions

All structural seams are done with strong thread by abutting the two neoprene parts and either using a wide zig-zag stitch on the machine or with an herringbone stitch on both sides of the fabric if sewing by hand.

View A

../../../_images/sewing_a.jpg

Cut parts A, B and C of the pattern in the neoprene.

Carefully align part C to the side of part A and sew the side, bottom and other side, starting and ending just below the rounded corner of part C. Push the neoprene to keep it aligned when going around the corners.

Do the same to part B, sewing the side, top and other side to the base A.

View B

../../../_images/sewing_b.jpg

Fold up the bottom part of the neoprene on the marked line, sew the sides starting from the bottom and going up until just below the rounded corner.

Do the same to the top part of the neoprene.

Both views: edge binding

../../../_images/binding_front.jpg

Starting from the center of the bottom flap, cover the raw neoprene edge with binding braid and either topstitch it down by machine or, recommended for best results, whipstitch it by hand on both sides, using regular sewing thread in either case and going carefully around the corners where the flaps and base meet.

../../../_images/binding_corner.jpg