Coffee, Tea or . . . ?

My sister asked me the other day if Trish was going to be hosting a Pin It/Do It Challenge in the near future.  I got all excited at the prospect of participating again . . . But then I realized that my life has pretty much become a Pinterest Challenge.  I am constantly spotting something that I just have to try.  Here is the latest:

The Butterfly Mug Bag from Red Brolly. The intent is to have a safe way to transport your favorite coffee/tea mug.  The bag consists of a padded pouch for the mug and a pocket for tea bags or condiments.

It did occur to me that I have never had the urge to carry my mug around with me, but sometimes pretty outweighs practicality.  Here is my finished bag:  (It's really not as lopsided as it looks - that's mostly bad photography)

I'm very happy with the results, but there's one hitch.  Here is the original Mug Bag as shown on Red Brolly:

Note how well the mug fits into the padded bag.

And here is my version with mug:

I made the bag with the dimensions in the tutorial.  Even the narrowest mug in my cupboard barely fits in the bag and the flap will not close with the mug in place.   Are Australian mugs considerably smaller than American mugs?  

Considering the fit issue and the fact that I had no use for a mug bag to start with, I am searching for an alternate use.  It could hold the supplies to make hexies - fabric, needle, thread and pattern - to work on when traveling.  It could hold a pen, note pad and post-it notes, for taking notes and flagging passages as I read.  It could hold . . .   Help me out and leave your ideas in the comments.