Sewing a Sleeve for my new Macbook Air

I recently bought a Macbook Air 13" which I have named Arie (my old computers were Elle and Eve).

Arie is so thin that she is in need of some protection, especially when I carry her around in my purse. She's already sustained a small gouge from my keys :-(

There are tons of super cute sleeves available on Etsy but I figured I could make one and I really need to deplete some of my fabric stash. So this is how I did it and I achieved moderate success... turns out even though Arie is super thin, she still has some thickness which I failed to account for so this sleeve is super snug. We'll call it sleeve version 1.0.

First, I took some measurements and drew a schematic of what I wanted to do. I basically wanted to make a lined tri-fold envelope. Arie is 13"x9" so with seam allowances of 1/4" and an extra 1/4" on either side for some give I needed to cut my fabric 14"x25". I'm sure I messed up in these calculations because the sleeve turned out a bit too snug. I had a little helper (maybe that was the problem..?):

Then, I ironed my fabrics - also this is a peek into my room/studio. Perhaps I will post more about it later.

I cut each fabric (grey for the outside, bird pattern for the liner), put wrong sides together and stitched 1/4" from the edge all the way around but left about a 3" opening so I would be able to turn it inside out later.

Then I turned it right sides out and ironed it flat.

So at this point I had a giant rectangle. I took my computer and laid it on the fabric to determine how big the pocket would be by simply folding the fabric around it... then I topstitched the sides of the envelope shut (as close to the edge as possible). Oh yeah, what about that 3" hole I had left? I sneakily sewed it shut when I topstitched the sides!

and voila! a very snug sleeve!

Definitely too snug though, the topstitching is already coming apart. I'll probably make another one soon, but this shall work for now!