How to Make a Cloth Lap Desk

Cloth lap desks are convenient items to possess. You can use them on car trips, or for writing or reading in bed or in a chair that's away from a table. Making a "no sew" cloth lap desk is easy when you use a purchased wood or plastic tray with handles and add a cloth pillow beneath for lap comfort. Drink and serving trays make great lap desks with a little tweaking and the use of a glue gun.

Instructions

1

Place the fabric, with the wrong side of the fabric facing you, on a flat work surface. Center the piece of cardboard on top of the fabric.

2

Use the glue gun with the glue sticks to draw a line (or several if necessary) of glue along the two long sides (18 inches) and one short end (11 inches) of the cardboard rectangle.

3

Overlap 2 inches of fabric on top of the cardboard and press the two long sides and the one short end of fabric firmly onto the glue on the cardboard. The corners will be overlapped. Cut off any excess corner fabric that doesnt look like it will lay flat once youve glued it. Leave enough to glue over the cardboard securely. Allow the glue to dry. This isnt going to be visible so the gluing or fabric arrangement need not be neat.

4

Use your hand to push fiberfill polyester stuffing into the open short end (11 inches) of the fabric/cardboard rectangle case. Fill the case with stuffing, but dont overfill. You dont want the cardboard to bow or the fabric to be taut.

5

Fold the open short end of the fabric over 2 inches on top of the cardboard and glue the fabric to the cardboard using the glue gun and glue sticks. This is the fabric pillow portion that goes beneath the lap desk.

6

Squirt glue all over the top of the cardboard along the fabric-covered edges and especially in the corners. Press the bottom of the tray onto the top of the glue-covered cardboard. Press firmly, adding more glue if necessary.

7

Grasp the cloth lap desk by the handles to transport. Place the cloth pillow portion of the cloth lap desk on your lap and use the tray as the desktop.