Saturday, April 29, 2006

Best Bag EVER

Most laptop bags are boring. Black leather, serious, business-y. If they have any color they're "designer" and cost over $50. And the fun colored ones are usualy for Macs only, and those are too small for my laptop.

What to do? Make one!

But I don't know how to sew or even operate a sewing machine. I have a Handy Stitch somewhere and the only thing I ever made with that was a bag to hold the Handy Stitch (which, for my coworker, is a never ending source of ridicule for me). I didn't take Home Ec in 7th grade. I took Tech Ed and made a crappy car and my teacher had halitosis. I took Home Ec in 8th grade and we cooked. Like I needed to learn to do that.

So, I asked my coworker to make me a fabulous laptop bag. Since I make her lots of jewelry, she was happy to teach me how to sew a few weekends ago while her husband was away at a big cancer meeting and she needed company. She taught me to knit months ago, too. We're crafty! That is a mildly nauseating thought. Well, arts and crafts fairs are nauseating. When I start looking forward to those things, someone punch me in the face.

Anyways, I picked out a pattern from McCalls and she showed me how to follow it and cut out pieces and how to customize stuff (because my laptop is wider than the pattern calls for). And she showed me how to use the sewing machine, which kind of intimidated me. However, I didn't do a stitch of sewing. I was too nervous anyway. I didn't want the bag to look like crap. But at least I understand where the thread goes around the machine now and how not to break the needle. Also, sewing it together proved to be a challenge because I chose a hell of a fabric to use. We went to JoAnn's and I chose canvas because it would be sturdy. In retrospect, I think I chose stuff that is supposed to be used for outdoor furniture and awnings. And once you put the lining and padding and the ouside fabric together, it's basically bulletproof.

We didn't finish it that weekend but she finished it up a couple of weeks later. It is everything I wanted. I am soooo pleased. It's bright and has lots of personality. And it is sooo ME. I love it. And if I ever get shot at, I have a shield.


Whoo! Look at that fabric. I could stop traffic!


Of course it's bright red inside. The laptop fits as snug as a bug in a rug. Width-wise anyways. The blue pocket gapes a bit, but the design called for it to be sewn to the lining at intervals for more pockets. However, I wanted a big pocket for paper notebooks. Perhaps we could add some velcro. The one downside about messing with the size of the bag is that it doesn't open flat. The zipper we bought was too short and we had to add a bit of fabric on the bottom so that the two zippers would meet at the top, and that prohibits open flatness. Still rocks though.

Here's the one bit I did do - awesome matching zipper pulls. Look at how those match the fabric! I have had those cylindrical beads for like a year! I'm so glad I got the opportunity to use them and they work so well!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is SO AWESOME. I am in awe.

D said...

I second Grace's comment. And add: I wanna make a cool laptop bag!!

sara said...

amazing! it looks great! crafts are fun!

Rachel said...

I absolutely love it!!! It looks so cool.

Aileen said...

LOL!!! estrogenic!!
by the way, i know i used too many exclamation points in this post. and there are some more!!!!

if you ever watch that god awful PBS cartoon, DragonTales, there is this one dragon, albeit a girl, that yells "LOOOOVE it!" just like the gayest man who ever gayed gay.