I recently got one of those tiny netbook computers since I work mainly online, so that I can get online from anywhere without having to lug around a lot of equipment and now I don't how I ever lived without it   Well I found this adorable hot pink case for it on eBay for cheap ($6 - it's awesome and has lots of pockets), but when it got here I HATED the strap.  It was way too long, especially for such a small case, and when I tried adjusting it to shorten the length it became too bulky to carry comfortably.



I found some similar clips at Michael's and then had a great time trying to decide which ribbon I wanted to use.  I really could've taken the original strap apart and used the those clips, but I decided to save the strap just in case I might need it at some future point.

I folded the original strap while it was still attached to the netbook case to figure out what length I wanted - I determined that I wanted the final length to be about 10", so I cut a 21" piece of the ribbon to allow for doubling and for a seam.

Next I laced the two clips through the ribbon, overlapped the ends 1/2", and stitched the ribbon closed so that it resembled a ring.  Then I laid the strap out flat with the clips at either end, with the seam where I wanted it, and pinned it in place.  The final step was to stitch within 1/8" of each long edge of the ribbon and across at each end to hold the clips in place.

I LOVE the new look and it's so much easier to carry now.  Someone truly ambitious could even make a variety of different handles for their laptop or netbook case to suit every mood!