Tutorial: DIY Chanel Leather Laptop Case

This is going to be quite a brief tutorial. I made this for myself as decent laptop cases can be expensive, but I didn't intend for it to be a tutorial! I think if you have good skills on a sewing machine, it should be fairly straight forward. I made it quickly so it isn't that great a quality but it will do.

You will need:

• Piece of leather 2x size of your laptop with a bit spare
• Zip to fit perfectly along the edge
• Padded material for lining
• Printed material for Chanel lettering
• Sewing machine
• Threads
• Scissors
• Pins
• Tailor's chalk

1) I had this spare piece of fake leather from a jacket I made at college. It's not big enough to make another item of clothing so instead of throwing it away I thought i'd put it to good use! If you don't have any, it only cost me around £11 a meter from my local fabric store and you only need probably a quarter of a meter!

2) Fold the fabric RS together and place your laptop on top to measure. Then place it inside the material. Push it down to the fold.

3) Pin down each side of the laptop, pulling quite tightly on the material. Then use tailor's chalk to draw an accurate line down through the pins.

4) Sew down the lines, and then trim excess material to about 1cm from the stitch. Cut off the corner as close as possible to the stitch.

5) This is optional but I wanted the lining to be padded to protect my beloved Macbook! I had this ugly quilted paisley print coat that I picked up from a jumble sale for about 20p. My mum wanted to throw it but I said "noo i'll use it for something one day!" and I finally did! So cut 2x rectangles or 1 on the fold, and pin them to the outside of the stitch on the leather which should be inside out.

6) Sew the lining to the leather then trim off any excess to about 5mm. Turn the case through.

7) I didn't take any photos of the zip process (I didn't plan for this to be a tutorial really) but if you know how to sew you'll know how to put on a zip. I used an exposed zip which I had lying around in my bag of zips which I got from the boot sale. It happened to be the perfect fit! And you want an open end zip (one that undoes completely) or it will be hard to get out your laptop. Trim the top of the case, pin one side of the zip down and sew, you don't need a zipper foot for this kind of zip but you will if you are using any other kind of zip.

8) Tadaaa! Your case is nearly complete. This part is also optional. I wanted to put "Chanel" on my case in leopard print lettering, I used the template I made for my t-shirts to cut out the letters. I then just glued them on to the front accurately.

Hope you like this tutorial. Sorry it's not very detailed but most people aren't that skilled in using a sewing machine, and i'm no expert so I can't explain it very well! But you get the idea.

xxx