Making a hardcover protection / travel sleeve for a computer mouse

I travel a lot, and I always bring my keyboard and mouse with me wherever I go. I even drag them to work every day, never leaving them there. So far both my ‘Rat’ and Das have survived, but after to many bangs to the head I decided to take a few minutes and create some protective gear. After thinking about the cost of buying, and time spent finding something that fits, waiting for it, and picking it from the office, versus time spent making it and price of material I came to the conclusion that I would win on making it myself. I’ll write a separate post of the Das protection sleeves, one soft and one hardcase, since that is an intermediate level project and the majority of my readers are probably not sewing on regular basis. The mouse protection sleeve is however easy to make, and costs next to nothing.

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I listened to a TechEd session on Windows 8 security features while I did this, a nice session that doesn’t require me to watch it. Listen to a podcast if you want, or watch a movie with a buddy/family. Or better, if you have kids, get them involved.

Time to make:

For me 30 minutes, but it depending on how you choose to do the seams and how much sewing you’ve done in school and after, leave 1-2 h to be on the safe side.

Materials:

One dark and one light fabric. Can be an old curtain, shirt or pillow case.

Thread, one dark one light, or you can use glue.

Some flexible plastic, I used a place mat from Ikea that cost me 1.49$. You can also use cardboard but don’t let it get in contact with water and careful with bending

A piece of paper

Pen

Button (grab one from an old shirt, or an extra button found on your jacket on the washing label)

Here are the steps, read all of them before you get started so you understand the full process. I promise you, it’s not hard.

1. Measure out a pattern

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Put the mouse on a paper and wrap the paper over. Mark how much you need and add some extra for seams (or glue). Leave more place at the top for the mouse cable if it has one.

Draw to ovals that have the width of the mouse wrap. We will use two of these, one as a bottom and one for the lid.

2. Cut out material

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Use the pattern and cut out the rectangle as well as the two ovals. Cut out both pattern material as well as the inner material.

3. Make pockets for the plastic

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Stitch the cut out fabrics in pairs with the ‘right’ side in leaving a few inches so you turn the fabric and also so you can put in the plastic pieces. Then turn them inside out with the right side out.

4. Insert plastic

Cut out the plastic and then insert into the fabric pockets, then stich the opening together.

5. Make the ‘tunnel’

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Bend the rectangle and sew the edges together.

6. Add bottom

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Sew the bottom on it

7. Add lid

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Sew the top lid but just the corner of it, you can make a leaf shape out of the oval like I did so it fits better with the corner, or use your fingers to model the case more oval.

8. Add closing mechanism

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Add a button to the case, and stich something to wrap around the button. If you want you can glue or sew together leftover fabric to make a handle for carrying the bag.

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Making a hardcover protection / travel sleeve for a computer mouse

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