Computer Case Tutorial

Please note there are no photos available.

Well, I just spent the past hour putting this tutorial online, and then my computer crashed and I lost it all, so … here it goes again.

When Sabrina was here during the holidays, she decided she wanted to work on a computer case.  So she took a piece of canvas, covered it with acrylic gel medium, and applied wrinkled tissue paper to the entire piece.  Then, she painted another layer of acrylic gel medium, and let it dry.  Once it was dry, she painted it with acrylic paint in yellow, red and green.  She thought it looked a bit too much like a rainbow, and that’s not what she was looking for, so she used a paint roller and applied a thin layer or blue acrylic paint over the entire surface.  Once again, she let it dry.  She worked on the fabric piece over a couple of days, to make sure that the layers were dry.  Once the paint was dry, she used my vintage wooden letterpress letters to stamp with, using white acrylic paint with a dab or gold.  Then she used acrylic inks and a toothbrush to splatter blue, green, gold, dark blue and green, most of them metallic.  And here’s a photo of the result:

Then she worked on the inside piece of fabric.  She decided she wanted it strip pieced.  She used a thin layer of batting as the base and using the stitch and flip method, several different strips of white and black fabric, in different widths to cover the piece of batting.  In this way, the fabric is quilted at the same time.  She used the strips she liked the most towards one of the ends, as that was going to be the flap.

Then, we measured the laptop, in this case a 13” Mac:  13” x 9”.  So, we have 9” for the front, plus 9” for the back plus 5 ½” for the flap plus 2” for ease.  We trimmed the fabric to 25” x 15”.

We used 505 Temporary Fabric Adhesive to hold the two (or three if you count the batting) together.  Then, we measured the 10” from the end, 10” from the first mark and that gave us two places to stitch through to mark the bottom of the computer case and the flap.  That made it easier to fold.

 Once that was done, she chose two different fabrics, one for the binding and one for the fabric ties.  For the binding, cut strips 2” wide.  Using the foot of the machine as a guide, from the front, right sides together, sew the binding to the short sides of the fabric, first.  Then, fold the fabric back, and down in half so the edge of the binding matches the edge of the fabric and batting.  Then, fold again covering the stitching line.  Pin in place carefully.

From the right side, sew on the ditch carefully, so as to catch the edge of the binding on the wrong side.  Alternatively, you could sew the binding by hand, or use a decorative stitch.

Making the ties:

Cut 2 strips of fabric 2”x 42”.  Take the strips to the ironing board.  Fold the strips in half, wrong sides together, and press.   Open the strip and fold one edge over to the fold and press.  Repeat with the other side.  Repeat with the other strip.  You will have 2 ½” strips of fabric

You can also use a 2″ bias tape maker to make the ties.  Just feed the 2″ strip through the tape maker and iron as it comes through the other end.  Then, follow the steps below.

Take to the sewing machine, and topstitch both edges close to the edge.

Knot the ends.  Measure 9” from the flap edge down and 5” in from the edge.  Repeat for the other edge.  That’s the placement of the ties.  Pin the ties in place and sew.  I backstitched a couple of times to make sure that they were secure.

Fold the cover along the bottom stitched line, wrong sides together, and pin in place.

Cut a binding strip 2” wide.  Starting at one end, right sides together, fold the binding to the back 1” as shown.

Start to stitch the binding in place, using the foot of the machine as a guide.  Backstitch.

Miter the binding at the corners.  To do that, stop stitching ¼” before the end, backstitch.  Fold the binding up as shown, forming a 45 degree angle.

Fold back on itself.  The fold will be even with the edge.  Pin in place.  Backstitch.

Repeat at the other corner.

Before reaching the other end, stop, turn the binding to the back, tight, leave 1” and trim.  Continue sewing, and backstitch.  Fold the binding to the back.

Fold again to cover the stitching line.

Stitch the binding in place from the right side, as before.

And voila, computer case finished and ready to be used.

And if you make one, send me a photo.  I’d love to see it.  In the meantime, keep quilting.

Ana