Patchwork Laptop Sleeve!

OK, so I didn't make this.  But I did find this plain black neoprene laptop sleeve in a cardboard box on a corner not far from my house one morning and brought it home, thinking that I could make it pretty if it fit my laptop.  I recovered it, so that I could re-cover it.  (Sorry about that, couldn't help myself.)

boring but functional (and free)

Has definitely seen better days.

Is this just a phenomenon in my slightly-hippy neighborhood, or is leaving your old stuff out on the curb for people to pick through rather than taking it to say, Goodwill, or the dump, the norm?  I swear, I can't walk the 7 blocks to my son's preschool without passing a broken-down bookshelf, a sack of old sweatshirts, the odd lava lamp, etc--and that's just the stuff that's MEANT to be free.  Do people really think that someone else is going to want this stuff?  I mean, other than me wanting your slightly worn-out laptop sleeve, that is.  It really did seem clean though--not stinky at all.  Definitely not any dirtier than everything else in our house.

Anyway, I picked out some fabrics and cut them into random width strips, sewed together and pressed seams flat, then pinned to the sleeve.  I started to sew it on my machine, and while I had considered that it might be challenging to reach all the way to the bottom of the sleeve on the machine, I didn't really think about what I would do when I actually reached that point.  So, I sewed as far as I could reach, then I just had to...leave it open.  I guess I could hide things in there, or use it to carry a cord or  something.  I did manage to maneuver the sleeve sort of upside-down-inside-out and sew down the bottom center seam, so it's not just flopping around, but it's definitely not what I was imagining.  Oh well.

I was thinking I could possibly hand-sew some kind of decorative trip around the edge, but it seems like kind of a pain to hand-sew through neoprene...I don't know if it's worth the hassle.

In any case, here's what I've got so far.  I purposely didn't photograph the sloppy openings--just pretend it looks professional and finished!

Much better than before!

And, my pretty red laptop fits :)