This project actually started as a different project requested by a customer. What he wanted was a little different than what you see here but I took more photos of the process of making this second one. His is different in that it's slightly larger, blue and has a long cord instead of a loop handle like this, which is a bit better suited for my market trips I intend to use it on.

The hardest part of this project hands down is the process of crocheting onto the zipper. That needle you see in the photo is a bit ridiculusly small in bad spots so it bent a lot in the process of making these. It's just a 2 mm needle but shoving that through tight woven fabric like you find a zipper attatched to isn't easy.

The yarn I used is a cool color rainbow cotton acrylic blend. I plan on using the rest of this ball (which is most of it) to make part of a bikini in the near future. Just today I recieved a shipment of bamboo yarn I've been waiting on, the only drawback I've found is it's really small diameter. Stay tuned for my sharing of those projects!

I did single stitches all the way around the edge of the zipper I bought. Once it made one round, I chained one then did a half double crochet in every stitch around.....and kept going until it looked like this. Once I decided to end it all I need to do is slip stitch it together...

A shot of the thing opened up just before I finished closing it.

Insert the hook into two parallel stitches, pull yarn through them.

It'll look like this. Then just pull yarn through those two loops on the hook and it's completed. Just do it down the line for every stitch and it'll close up nicely.

It'll look like this.

A shot before I fastened the zipper on the second side. To do that I just turned it inside out and used that nearly broken tiny needle to thread some more yarn through the two pieces of zipper and the bag itself. Tied in a simple not and it stays in place once you flip it right side out.

I just made a chain handle by doubling up on the cotton blend with black to make it thicker and just chaining as many as I needed to have it the length I wanted. I don't remember how many stitches