Custom MacBook Case

After purchasing a MacBook, I discovered that I didn’t have a proper case to carry my new computer around in and I didn’t feel like shelling out lots of money for one. So I decided to sit down at my mother’s sewing machine (one so technologically advanced that I had to read the instruction manual to find out how to make it go) and make one for myself. I rooted through my fabric stash and found some fabric that I liked and asked my mom if she had any fabric I could use as well. I ended up picking a cotton fabric for the inside and a smoother, more decorative fabric for the outside, both of which are black.

inside fabric:

outside fabric:

After picking the fabrics I wanted, I needed to come up with a plan for what I wanted my case to look like. Should it have pockets? Should it have a strap? How should it be kept shut? What should I use to cushion the fabric? How thick should it be? Where would I put the strap(s) if I decided to have any? Should I put something inside to make the bag stiff or should it be floppy? If I use buttons to keep it shut, what buttons should I use? How many? If i use a zipper to keep the bag shut, what kind of zipper? After much deliberation, I decided to keep it simple.

The MacBook is a mere 1 inch thick, so i decided not to go with a strap, fearing that it might rip out. I decided on buttons rather than a zipper to keep the bag shut worrying that the zipper might scratch the edge of my baby. I chose 2 large white buttons from my grandmother’s old button collection to keep the case shut. I found some fusible interfacing that was pretty stiff so I decided to use that along with a few (4) layers of batting.

I decided to make the bag as simple as possible, so I searched through patterns and found one that I liked the idea of and adjusted it to suit my job. The pattern requires 3 pieces for each layer of the bag (inside, outside, and filling). The three pieces are (1)a large piece (13.75″x25.25″) that will become the front, back, and top flap of the back, (2) a narrow strip (1.75″x9.75″)for one side of the bag, and (3) another narrow strip (1.75″x9.75″) for the other side of the bag. I had to cut 2 pieces of fabric for the large strip from the inside fabric because I messed up the first cut and made it impossible to cut a big enough piece from the remaining fabric.

first cut (nonono!!! stop!! wait!!):

After I cut out all the pieces of fabric that I’d be using for the case, I started sewing the inside of the bag (if you’re sewing anything, a good rule to go by is to cut all your pieces before you start sewing. same rule for cooking, assemble all your ingredients before beginning. You don’t want to find out half way through that you don’t have enough flour for your cake…I just thought about who I’m talking to, moving on….) Here are what the inside pieces look like without being sewn together:

After I got them all sewn up, I ironed on the fusible interfacing (the stiff one). After it was attached, the bag looked like this:

I stitched the batting together so it wouldn’t slide around inside the case too much. Next I sewed the side strips of the outside fabric to the large piece of outside fabric. Once this was done, I put the right sides of the inside and outside fabric together and started sewing, making sure the batting was getting picked up along the way. After pulling and stitching and tearing out seams and re-sewing seams, I finally got everything together. It’s very snug (I think it’s a little too snug, ghostshadow thinks it’s perfect), and very soft. Besides the snugness I’m happy with the way it turned out. Here is the final product:

closed from the front:

closed from the side:

finished back:

finished open:

If you have any questions, if something doesn’t make sense (I wouldn’t be surprised), ask away. I did not have to buy any of the materials I used to make this case so it was kind of free. It didn’t require any special skills (besides the 3 month long training course on how to operate the sewing machine), I used plain old scissors, rotary cutter, ruler, cutting mat, straight pins, and didn’t use any fancy stitching. The whole process from nothing to a bag took a few hours, a lot more time consuming than buying a bag, but it’s a good feeling knowing that you made something rather than bought it. That’s all I have for now, thanks for reading this far into the post.

- Bookgopher

Tags: Hacking, Macbook, macbook case, Modding

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