Schwag Laptop Keypad Cover

Protect your laptop screen with this easy-to-make cover. This is a really great use for all those company t-shirts that don't really fit.

Step 1 Materials

You will need:

- schwag t-shirt
- backing fabric, could be a patterned fabric or another schwag t-shirt
- iron-on fabric adhesive
- thread
- scissors
- fray-check, anti-fray liquid, or clear nailpolish
- sewing machine (could also be hand-sewn or have no sewing)
- pattern or paper for making the pattern

if you want to include the fabric leash you will need:

- ribbon
- alligator clips

Comments

[Gage987]

i would think that people would make inst. tees with iron ons and do that

[GorillazMiko]

Nice job!! I would most rather keep the Instructables shirt, but I will see if I can print the Instructables image and robot and stuff onto a cloth, then I'll use that for my keyboard. Nice job!

[nagutron]

Just did a whole Instructable of my own before realizing that Leah had already done one. Extra points to her for reusing a shirt in a novel way. Mine, on the other hands, aims for slickness points, what with my use of our fancy laser etcher/cutter:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-cut-Laptop-Screen-Protector/

[dfc849]

one came with my HP DV6400 Customized

[quincy85wrestler]

oh my god, it's "THE MACBOOK!!!!" could you help me do the same thing you did?

[LindsayatSpreadshirt]

Thanks for these instructions. This is an awesome idea. I didn't know that my keyboard was causing all the screen issues. Cool. I have just added this to the spreadshirt blog - http://blog.spreadshirt.com

[luisrobles]

Excellent work pal, keep the good work!!

[Leon Close]

Nice sewing machine.

[radiorental]

I used a sheet of latex to cover my laptop in the workshop. I can see the keys, use the keyboard but keep dust out the crude off my keyboard. Then with a wipe its clean and protects when the lid is down. Leah, I would suggest two bands of elasticated ribbon for the leash. I would be afraid of accidentally closing the lid on one of those croc clips and killing the screen.

[leahculver]

Very true - the alligator clips made a pretty poor leash. I ended up not even using the leash at all. Certainly elastic ribbon would make a really nice leash.

[mrmath]

Nice instructable. Clear pictures. Nice Step by step. Well done. But what does it do?

[Fishd]

My old Dell D600 had this trouble as well. I spend hours typing away... and all the oils from my skin (along with random food items, gross I know) would be tranferred to the keyboard. Once I closed the lid all that crud would be transferred to my screen. Not good! Now, after a brief trip in for repair Dell fitted longer 'stand-offs' to the screen to prevent it from coming into contact with the keyboard... but it was already marked. This cover prevents that nicely. If one side was a nice fine microfibre it could even be used as a screen wipe.

[ewilhelm]

Some of the larger laptops, particularly MacBook Pros, tend to rub their keys against their screens when shoved in a bag. On my laptop, I have a series of very fine scratches right where the space bar touches the screen. This fabric help protect the screen.

[orthopak]

Very interesting...

http://whosorthopak.blogspot.com

[trebuchet03]

What other laptops -- other than Macs - does this happen to? I used to work IT at a high school -- we got about 60 iBooks and within a few months, at least half had the keyboard etching. I originally thought it was due to heat because the imprint only showed up on machines that the teacher would close (rather than leaving it open on the desk). But I guess that makes sense if it's scratching :P