I’ve been not-so-patiently waiting to show off the gift I made for my brother Roger’s birthday (which was 08-08-08, by the way) I was a little late sending it to him and didn’t want to post it here until I knew he had received it. The anticipation has been killing me!

Here it is! The felt laptop cozy I custom made for his iBook….the Rog-A-Sketch. Since my brother is very nostalgic about his childhood and the toys we loved back then, I knew this was the perfect idea for him.

I used 100% wool felt in a simple wrap design that closes in the front with velcro. The button nobs turn, but sadly are non-functional.

On the silver “screen” I stitched with black thread in vertical and horizontal directions. After stitching I backed the screen area with fusible interfacing since I knew that area would get some wear with use. My sewing machine has a block letter alphabet that I used to add his name…

This shows the basic construction. The back is about 1/4″ bigger in length and width than his laptop. (I used an 1/8″ seam allowance) The bottom flap is the same with about 1″ added to accommodate the thickness of the laptop. The top flap is the same as the back with 2″ extra top to bottom since it has the extra overlap in the front. The side flaps are long enough to overlap an inch in the middle when it’s all folded up.

That little cutie is the prototype I made first when I was figuring out my construction…I call it the Betz-A-Sketch. Yup, I made a practice cozy for my sketchbook! 🙂