What is it?

The Grace Crossbody Bundle, named after mathematician and computer scientist Grace Hopper, contains:

• The Grace Crossbody phone bag, made from vegan leather with the option to choose from three different colors. It has two main compartments, each containing slots for credit cards and ID, as well as a front compartment to hold the Bright Board and battery pack. It comes with both long and short detachable straps so you’ll have the option to wear it over your shoulder or on your wrist. Either way, you'll shine brightly when you take it with you!

• The Bright Board micro:bit accessory board along with a 3xAA battery pack (batteries not included) to illuminate the the backpack with colors and patterns you you code yourself.

• (optional) a micro:bit micro controller is required to control the colors and patterns on the Bright Board. If you do not already own a micro:bit, please select the "with micro:bit" option when you purchase the Grace Bundle.

Why did you make it?

I love LED wearables, but it's hard to make them both attractive and durable. The Bright Wearables line is the results of a longstanding effort to make a practical wearable product that people will want to wear.

This fun, modular system lets you write code at home and display special colors and patterns when you go out, or you can code on the go, using the micro:bit phone apps to program the micro:bit over Bluetooth. I designed it in the hopes that codeable wearables might interest kids in learning physical computing - particularly those who are not engaged by more traditional educational programming environments.

What makes it special?

This is the first micro:bit-based ready-to-wear LED wearable on the market. It gets all the benefits of the existing educational system build around the micro:bit, and it's attractive, fun and practical to boot. Turn the Bright Board on to stand out and show off your code. Turn it off, and you're incognito with a cute, clear mini-backpack with a secret that only you know about.

The Grace Crossbody phone bag is part of a modular system of codeable wearables which use the Bright Board. You can pop out the Bright Board and put it in a different bag, or take out the micro:bit to use for a project, and put it back in your bag when you're done. Using the micro:bit phone apps, you can code the Bright Board via Bluetooth wherever you are. Change your colors whenever you want, and gain coding skills while you do.

The Grace bag dimensions are 6" x 8.6" x 2.75"