Wrist Pad For Macbook Air (correction: Pro Retina Display Of Awesomeness) – DIY

macs n qtr
macs n qtr

My man’s MacBook Airs*** are considerably thinner than my MacBook and compared to my corporate-backbreaker-Lenovo…

lenovo qtr
lenovo qtr

Forgetaboutit.

So finding a wrist pad that wasn’t going cause the inverse issue because they’re all made for my Flinstone-sized Lenovo was proving to be impossible…ditto tutorials on making one. Suuurrre, I’m going to fill a long, tube, sack with rice….gross. No. Do you realize how much he works??? One day of stress and a rice tube would be a rice noodle. Nasty.

I had some Robert Kaufman yarn dyed linen in Flax left – that’s soooo manly, right? And I offered to make one to the specs of the Macs. There’s a 13″ and a 17″, and I had to cover the wear that was already happening on the edge of the desk. You don’t get it. You think you put in long hours and days? You don’t even know. He’s a machine. A machine that needed a wrist pad.

wear on desk
wear on desk

Using rocket science, I cut out 4 strips of 17×1.5 inch batting to make 2 double layers, and extended the length of the fabric to include seam allowances (1/4″) and room to attach Velcro.

fabric & batting
fabric & batting

I made the top seam at 1/4″ to be enclosed, then scooted the first 2 layers of batting up against it.

 

qtr inch back seam
qtr inch back seam
center top batting
center top batting

I scooched it with my fingers, and pinned it in tight.

squoosh n pin
squoosh n pin

I took crappy photos.

Then, using a zipper foot, I top-stitched right up against it to keep it in place.

zipper foot
zipper foot
top stitched 1st pad
top stitched 1st pad

After the first half of the padding is in, the second half is just a tad trickier if you’re making yours wrap-around the edge too. I ironed under the 1/4″ seam allowances and placed my second half of batting.

topstitching
top-stitching

I top-stitched it closed, then squooshed it up against the seam and using the zipper foot again, stitched the center to create the gap that will fold around the edge of the desk.

bottom pad
bottom pad squoosh
zipper foot bottom pad
zipper foot bottom pad

I folded in the ends and top-stitched those closed before attaching the Velcro.

Velcro on pad
Velcro on pad
velcro 2
velcro 2

I had some sticky dot Velcro for the desk side. The best way to apply that is to put the Velcro ON your sewn Velcro, line up on desk, the press down to adhere it to the desk. If I was smarter, I would have put painters tape down first, but you can learn from my shortfalls.

velcro dots
velcro dots

There IS painters tape down to cover the rough spots, however. Derp.

Here it is, up against the MacBook Air***….a nice little pad for comfort.

fini
fini

And here it is with the 13 inch pushed back a bit.

13" MacBook Air w wrist pad
13″ Mac Pro Retina Display Of Awesomeness w wrist pad

And there you have it. A couple hours to make my man more comfy.

*** I have been corrected. They are not MacBook Airs…they are Mac Pro Retina Displays Of Awesomeness. Or something. I am a new Mac-Apple-Fanboy convert in my personal use and am still learning the lingo.