well you know....
So what now? I sealed the raw edges with Fray Check, once that had dried, I used a matching thread and whip stitched the heck out of it. What was my solution for the rest of the bags? Don't trim the fabric by the zipper ends! Once I turned it inside out, I fought and wrestled with tucking in the zipper tape ends, then carefully turning in the lining to cover all that mess, and whip stitching the whole thing closed (See photo on the left, below.) The zipper ends with the stopper weren't quite as bad, but I still whip stitched the opening to the zipper, so that there weren't any open holes (photo on the right, below.) What I thought was the funniest, was at this point the directions say to stitch (on the right side) the side seams between the two separate top stitching areas to connect the two top stitched seams. WHAT? How in the heck am I supposed to stitch over this big jumble of crap? Somebody answer that please. Oh well, I left it alone, so when you are looking at my bags (on the sides) there is a gap of top stitching, and yes it looks weird. Really weird, and if you look on the inside of my bags at the zipper ends, that also looks really weird. Can you tell that I was annoyed?