Introduction: Woven Duct Tape Laptop Sleeve

About: Charlotte designs textiles and prints for a living. When she has a spot of free time, she often sneaks off to do something crafty with her hands. Enjoys making beautiful things and writing lists. Loves organiz…

When you want something hardy simple and colorful to carry your laptop in... and jazz up your outfit:D

Fast, easy, don't require much technical skill, just have fun with it and give it your own twist. It was an impulse make for me, for once, I wanted something rough around the edges, ragged, striking and definitely IN YOUR FACE! I love it...

It'll get people talking when they see it... Best thing is, it's not perfect, and it doesn't have to be:D

Step 1: Materials

Materials:

- Duct Tape, in a few colors of your choice

- Woven pp Bag, mostly found in transportation and logistics, you can use a clean fertilizer bag or cut open a rice sack

- Clear Tape

Tools:

- Scissors

- Cutting Mat

Step 2: Size

Get your laptop and measure a sizable amount of pp bag, what I have here is a 13" HP, we are gonna form an envelope style case, so cut out 2 rectangle pieces of the size shown above, making sure you have space around it, and a thicker band at the top.

Step 3: Stripes

Take the duct tape and stick them horizontally on one sheet of pp bag and vertically on the other sheet. Get a nice mix of colors as you go along. I did the same amount for each of my 3 colors to get a uniform weave in the end. You should get 2 sheets of the same size, 1 with vertical stripes and 1 with horizontal stripes.

Step 4: Getting Stripes

Get up your 2 sheet along the lengths of tape and you will get colorful stripes of tape that is backed with pp bag.

Step 5: Lining the Stripes

Get a length of clear tape and lay it sticky side up, this is probably the only tricky part in this whole operation. Then line all the ends of the horizontal stripes on the tape, leaving half of the clear tape exposed, we are going to close it later. Also, arrange the order of the stripes in the color pattern you want, have fun here. Also, it adds to the mystery here as you won't know how your pattern will turn out until you weave it. Once you have place all your horizontal stripes, fold down the op part of the clear tape, you will end up with something like a strip of grass skirt. Do the same for the vertical strips.

Step 6: Lining Up

Place your 2 pieces of "grass skirt" 1 on top of each other, length and breath, so that their sizes line up like before they were cut. Stick together the corners where the clear tape overlap. You are now ready to weave!

Step 7: Weave Step 1

I have 9 Vertical stripes and 12 Horizontal stripes

Flip up Vertical stripes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and lay across Horizontal strip 1. Then flip back down Vertical stripes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9.

Step 8: Weave Step 2

Flip up Vertical stripes 2, 4, 6, 8 and lay across Horizontal stripe 2. Flip Vertical stripes 2, 4, 6, 8 back down.

Step 9: Finishing Your Weave

Repeat Weave Step 1 and 2 till the last Horizontal stripe is in place and you should get a woven piece of material. Stick down all the sides. I used clear tape at the loose sides to secure all the frayed edges.

Step 10: Finishing the Edges

Then use some duct tape to tape the unsightly clear tape into the inside of the material.

Step 11: Forming Your Laptop Sleeve

Using your laptop as the form, fold your material around it until you get a satisfying envelope shape. Fold in the jutting bit at the end so that your laptop will be able to slide in cleanly when you are finished.

Step 12: Finishing the Laptop Sleeve

Using duct tape, tape together the laptop sleeve on the inside so that the outer woven pattern is undisturbed.

And there you have it! A Woven Duct Tape Laptop Sleeve, which may also serve as an over-sized clutch for notebooks and legal pad. Feels good in your hand and absolutely striking. I got a mixed chevron pattern with mine, you can play with the colors a bit and see what you get. It's a great thing to make with your friends and so easy when all you need to do is stick things with tape. be creative and customize it to your liking. Have fun with it! Looking forward to see what fun patterns you can do!

Shout out to Duct Tape for coming in so many vibrant colors! WooHoo!!!

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