New To-Go Singlet Style Bag...with a few issues

March 7: Let's see it's the 7th day of national craft month, and yes, I have crafted something everyday.  Yesterday I got my hair done (yay!) and while I was waiting for the color to be done I knitted a hexipuff.

I've decided that I want to accent each of the different colors of hexipuffs with plain hexipuffs.  I found some charcoal grey yarn at Fabric.com (love them!)  So I ordered a few skeins of that yarn.  I'm going to be making tons of hexipuffs in that color.  But I think it's going to turn out cool.

Total Hexipuffs: 8!

Today, I tackled making a singlet style (i.e. like the plastic bags in the store) reusable bag.  I found this awesome tutorial from Crafty Ady.  I decided that I wanted to make the bag lined.  I don't like having raw edges sticking out and I also didn't have pinking shears handy.  I also found some bright pink piping in my random notions box.  Here's what I ended up with:

 Here it is all rolled up.  I added a wrist loop so I can easily carry it into a store.  Sometimes I go into stores and I don't know if I'm going to buy anything and carrying one of my larger bulkier bags is kind of a pain.

This one will be easy to carry.

My bag doesn't roll up as little as the tutorial's version.  I think this is because I lined the bag.   There is just more bulk to roll up. 

This is the close up of the flap that holds the bag together when it is rolled up.  I had these bright lime mini pompoms that I added.  I wanted to use the bring pink piping, but I ran out of piping.

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Here you can see the bag opened up.  I added the pink piping.  The original tutorial doesn't have this.  It's pretty easy to add when you line the bag. 

 Showing off the inside lining.  I just used regular black cotton to line the bag.  The outside is a home decor weight remnant I found at JoAnn's.

Here you can see the flap.  I used a magnetic clasp to hold it closed.

Note to self:  Add the magnetic clasp BEFORE you sew the bag shut!

Another note:  if you want to line the bag, don't sew the handles together.  You need to leave them open in order to turn the bag right sides out.  I learned this the hard way.

I didn't want to take out all the stitches so I just cut the seam that was there.  This means that I lost a little bit of the length.  I attempted to flat felled the seams, but they are a bit messy.  The piping makes it nearly impossible.

What I'd change when I make another:  measure where the middle of the bag is for starting the piping.  I didn't show it, but the joining of the ends of the piping isn't in the middle so the flap looks like it's off center and I'm one of those people that likes things symmetrical.  But you learn from your mistakes.  I think it's still a good result and I'll use it.  I need to figure out a better way to close the open ends of the handles if I want to use piping again.  Either it needs to be a really large flat felled seam or some other way to close it.