I bought these canvas bags for so cheap it is embarrassing. And part of what drew me to them was that big white pocket on the front. I saw that it would be so simple to remove the pocket - embroider it on a machine and put it back on easily.
After taking the embroidery machine class at the TechShop http://www.techshop.ws I dug it out and brought it to the TS to do just that.

Step 1:

I removed the pocket with a seam ripper being careful to snag only the stitches and not the bag

Step 2:

I put it in the hoop and used a tear away stabilizer since the pocket is a light canvas with a lot of staying power and the design I chose (from the preloaded ones in the machine) was not too delicate

Step 3:

I made my color selection (most of them provided by the Tech Shop http://www.techshop.ws) and rotated them as the machine dictated.
I made the mistake of removing the hoop and didn't get the whole thing quite back to the EXACT spot, but even with my goof it looks OK