ruminatio's dashboard

Can the laptop sleeve be cut out from laptop messenger without damaging bag? I bought a beautiful custom laptop messenger for my wife for Christmas, but the laptop sleeve is so thick that it limits the usefulness of the bag when she is not carrying her laptop. And when she is carrying her laptop, she'd prefer to use her own sleeve that is slimmer and leaves more room for other things in the bag (like her large Med school books). So I'm wondering whether it might be possible to cut out and permanently remove the laptop sleeve without damaging the bag itself. Has anyone tried this or have a suggested method?

Kicking myself for not having bought the straight-up messenger bag . . .