Excellent - many thanks for this, Sean, much appreciated.

Regards

--Neil

Sean,
Ah, you are "not a clown".  I remember your artist palette pic which looked awesome.  It was a good way to think outside the box.  I shared pics on the "other" forum, Chris, so this may look like a double post.  
We started with a Twist-em up apron, moved onto a larger apron that I made, when it didn't hold enough balloons we customised a scrapbooking case, adding the front of our aprons (pockets to the handle) to hold more.... and in the last 2 years have come up with our bag which I love.  
Plus.....I got a really good tip on another forum for restocking.  We have more than 1 bag and there are 2 of us...1 of us does not like to fill bags so we need a quick painless way to do it.  If you are working have a "refill bag" or in my case an extra pocket and put any balloon that is low into that pocket or "bag".Then if you need to use a bag and don't have time for a full refill...you can fill those balloons which are in "crisis".
I used a rolling bag similar to the Crop In Style to hold my bag, but have since transitioned to something with a smaller footprint.  

and my working bag.
This is how I arrive...
Looking forward to seeing more set-ups and inputs for your set-ups.

Ok. rehashing an old post, but now I'm in serious trouble, had a 7 hour gig at a craft-store and bought a sewing machine!  (Yes, I"m like Sean, completely inexperienced in sewing, but with enormous needs for custom created balloon bags etc).

But now, I'm really torn between busking bags and aprons, as I have been using both for a while.  The busking bag is best for a  (the term compact may depending on your point of view) compact and accessible way to store huge numbers of balloons.  The apron is incredibly useful with wide open pockets to add extra colour or volume of balloons for each gig (eg black and gold for cocktail functions, white red and green for Xmas etc).  The apron also allows me to have a small tube of paper tissues, markers, glue dots, squeakers and my 3 dispensers for hearts rounds and beebodies.   I also have a circular dispenser for my other volume based printed rounds, alien heads, agates etc, which currently hangs off my belt but needs its own large pocket really, plus two other assorted bags for balloon balls, scissors, Conwin cutter, 160 pump and a few other things.

By the time this is all on my waist, there's is about 270 degrees of balloon kit, and it's time to trim it down somehow, as well as find some way to raise it all up a few more inches, so I don't have to reach down so far all the time to get things.

Anyone here with ideas on how to do this, and how to create stiffened and shaped bags so they sit right?