Quilted Laptop Sleeve - Free Sewing Pattern

Laptop sleeves don’t have to be just practical. They can be cute, too! Sew a quilted laptop sleeve from your favorite fabric print and you’ll have a laptop sleeve that you love to take along with you. I’ve got a free sewing pattern you can use to make one.

My college student daughter often carries her laptop with her – to class, to a friend’s house, etc. She had a laptop case but it wasn’t anything special. Just a plain dark green padded sleeve that someone had gotten for free at some point. I decided when she was home for Christmas break that she needed something a little nicer.

So we dug through my fabric stash and she pulled out this adorable star print. I love this print so much I’d been saving it back (ahem, hoarding it) for just the right project. Turns out this project was just that.

When I saw it finished, I told her if I didn’t love her more than life itself, I’d be stealing this laptop sleeve from her.

The tutorial uses quilting cotton for both the Main fabric and the Lining. The foam provides a nice amount of padding to help protect your laptop. The flap has a simple hook and loop tape closure for easy open and close.

I should say right now that if you’re tempted to substitute fleece for the Lining, DON’T DO IT. Fleece creates static electricity which can damage your electronics.

Finished dimensions are approximately 10 ½” wide x 13” tall and fits my daughter’s 13” MacBook Pro perfectly. (Her laptop is 8 ½” wide x 12” tall.) If your laptop is a different size it should be pretty easy to adjust the dimensions by adding or subtracting width/length from the pattern. Just keep in mind that the pattern folds up at the bottom so any adjustment to the height needs to be made to each side of the fold line.

A Quick Word About Directional Prints

If you look closely at the adorable star print on this laptop sleeve you can see that it’s a directional print with defined up and down. If I had just straight cut the pattern from this fabric I would have ended up with upside down stars on the back of the sleeve. The direction isn’t super obvious on this print and probably would have been okay like that, but it just bothered me.

So instead I cut and then pieced the fabric so the direction would change with each fold and nothing would upside down. I’ve included special directions in the tutorial below to explain how to do that.

Supplies

Main fabric – quilting cotton, 11.5” wide x 32” long If your fabric print is directional with an obvious up or down, don’t cut your fabric yet. You’ll need to piece it from three fabric cuts so the print on the fabric isn’t upside down on the back of your laptop sleeve. See the special directions below for cutting dimensions and piecing instructions.

Lining fabric – quilting cotton, 11.5” wide x 32” long

Double-sided fusible foam interfacing – 11.5” wide x 32” long

¾” wide Hook and loop tape – 1 piece, 4.5” long

Bias tape – 2 yards I made my own bias tape from my Main fabric, but purchased bias tape works just as well.

Gluestick

Free Pattern – Quilted Laptop Sleeve

Piecing instructions for directional fabric prints:

If you’re using a directional fabric with an obvious up or down, you’ll need to cut and piece your fabric together in order to avoid your print being upside down on the back of the laptop sleeve. The piecing is easy – you’ll just need to make a few easy fabric cuts and sew a couple of seams. Cut the following pieces:

2 pieces – 11.5” wide x 13.5” tall

1 piece – 11.5” wide x 6” tall

Piece these pieces together on the 11.5” sides using a ¼” seam allowance, following the placement and direction on this diagram.

Now you’ve got a long strip of fabric that’s 11.5” wide x 32” tall with the print changing direction in the middle.

Prep

Follow manufacturer’s instructions to fuse the main fabric and lining fabric to the front and back of the fusible foam interfacing. This creates a fabric covered foam stabilizer with the main fabric on the front and the lining on the back, and a layer of foam between them.

Cut out the Laptop Sleeve pattern from the fabric covered foam stabilizer.

If you’re using a directional print, line the seam lines up on your directional print up with the dashed lines on the pattern.

Quilt the Laptop Sleeve

Use an erasable fabric marking pen to vertical mark stitch lines down the length of your Laptop Sleeve. I made my lines 1 ½” apart, but you can make them any distance.

In order to center the quilting lines, I first found the center of the Laptop Sleeve and then marked lines ¾” on either side of the center line. I used these lines as a starting point and marked additional lines 1 ½” from these lines.

If you don’t have a long straight edge for marking the lines, you can fold the paper pattern in half lengthwise and use that as a straight edge.

Sew on the marked lines to quilt the Laptop Sleeve.

If you have a walking foot with seam guides, you can use the seam guides to avoid having to mark all the lines. Just mark a couple of lines as a starting point and then use your seam guide to quilt additional lines at the same distance. Here’s a good tutorial that shows how to use a seam guide.

Assemble the Laptop Sleeve

Zig zag stitch around all sides of the Laptop Sleeve using a short, wide zig zag stitch. I used a stitch wide 5 and a length of 1.5. The zig zag stitching will compress the foam at the edges to make it easier to apply the bias tape.

Ignore the black rectangles on the diagram. They’re just some sort of weird glitch from my graphics program when I’m drawing zig zag lines.

Finish the edge marked “front opening” on the pattern with bias tape. There are different methods for applying bias tape. If you don’t already know how to do this, here’s my favorite way:

1. Place the Laptop Sleeve face (Main fabric) up. Open out one side of the bias tape and sew it to the edge of the fabric, right sides together, raw edges aligned, and with your needle in the ditch of the fold.

2. Flip the bias tape around the raw edge over to the Lining side. Glue the tape down with the folded edge of the bias tape just barely past the stitch line. Press with a hot iron to dry the glue.

3. Flip the piece back over (Main fabric is on top again) and top stitch the bias tape down 1/8” from the inside edge

Place the Hook side (bumpy side) of the Hook and Loop tape across the front of the Laptop Sleeve, centered horizontally and 2” from the edge marked “front opening”. Stitch in place around all 4 sides of the Hook and Loop tape so it’s good and secure.

Fold the bottom of the Laptop Sleeve up, RST, where marked on the pattern with a dashed line. (If you pieced your fabric, this fold will be right at the bottom seam line.) Use fabric clips to hold in place.

Sew at sides with ¼” seam allowance.

Zig zag stitch along the sides where you just sewed to help compress the bulk. Use the same stitch settings as before.

Finish the edges of the sides and top of the Laptop Sleeve with bias tape in one long seam. Use the same process as before, but you’ll need to finish the ends of the bias tape at the bottom corners. Here’s how to do that:

First, leave about ¾” extra bias tape at each end.
Then, when flipping the bias tape over the raw edges, first wrap that extra ¾” bias tape at the end over the bottom raw edge. Then when you flip the bias tape over the sides, it’ll cover that bit you folded up over the end. Glue all of this in place before top stitching.

I know that sounds confusing but hopefully it will make some sense when you’ve got the bias tape in hand. Just experiment with folding the tape over the bottom and side edges till you have a clean look.

Now the last thing you need to do is add the Hook and Loop tape to the inside of the flap. Place the Loop side (soft side) of the Hook and Loop tape across the Lining side of the flap, centered horizontally and 1 ½” from the top (when measured at the center). Stitch in place around all 4 sides.

Your Quilted Laptop Sleeve is finished!

Wouldn’t this quilted laptop sleeve make a perfect gift for a high school grad/new college student?! Here are a few more ideas for fun handmade gifts for students: