A Finish! Bionic Gear Bag

I've been chomping at the bit to make one of these Bionic Gear Bags!  I riled up a few pals to make them too!   I found it because I was looking for a needle book with a grid to make as Goodie Gifts for our Spring Retreat.  I came across this image on Google and trotted off to Craftsy.com to buy the pattern for it!

Bionic Needle Organizer Wallet

Well after that, true to "Jan-Form"....I ended up clicking through links and searching some more.  That's when I realized that the Needle book was actually an ACCESSORY to a much COOLER item!

Bionic Gear Bag, Dumpling Dish & Needle Wallet

Bionic Gear Bag

"Tricked Out" Pockets

Several people in the Facebook group asked for details of what I did to "trick out" my pockets.   The pattern designer has a very unique way of writing patterns.   It's very very long (wordy), but she says early on that she wrote it in this manner so that you can feel like you are sitting along beside her making the project with her!    If you are a thorough instruction reader, you'll love it.   If you are the type of quilter that goes right for the bullet points, cutting list and pictures....you WILL struggle with this pattern. Any way, at the point in building the bag that you can add features to the zipper pockets, she tells you.  And makes some suggestions!   Here's what I did:

• Added Magnetic Snaps to the bag AND the Dumpling Dish so that I can stand stuff up behind the bowl without the bowl moving.
• A small pocket for my screwdriver\or thimble.   (Mostly screwdriver - I am the resident "Vintage sewing machine fixing person" at every sewing gathering...so I always need it to rescue a machine from it's owner
• Small square Vinyl pockets on THREE of the pockets.   The paper tab that is in there was the thing I used to determine size.   I swear I forget what's in zippered pockets, so a label to fill out is really helpful to me!
• Couple of different small sections of elastic, spaced for specific tools.  I want to be able to stand up and easily grab certain things while I'm working and have a quick place to put them back
• Vinyl on 4th zipper pouch.   One side is for Index cards (shopping lists, or "put-it-in-the-BGB-list", etc.  and the other is for business cards.(Grin - MY business cards)

Bionic Gear Bag Closed.

I spent a LOT of time making sure the binding was perfect and it was totally worth it.  I can't tell you how many projects I've done where the last step is to "bind" and it makes the entire project look like crap.  It's one of the most valuable things I've learned from the By Annie Classes I'm taking.

GLUE BASTE BINDING!!!   THEN SEW!!

Check out MORE design walls at Patchwork Times or Monday Making or Moving it Forward or Main Crush Monday or even BOMS away Monday!

Here's a few "In Progress" pictures along the way.