Dice bags can be a hefty purchase at many shops. Though they are made of nice material and can often be found with beautiful embroidery and beadwork, they aren’t anything special if you can sew. The alternative to spending so much money, is to either use something like a Ziploc bag, or you can create a beautiful hand-made one yourself. In this article, I'll show you how to make a dice bag without a pattern.
Materials
My favourite part of hand-sewn bags is that you can choose any fabric in any colour you like. Check out fabric shops for their remnants bins. These are little pieces of fabric left over, that are too small to make much out of, but they’re big enough to make two or three dice bags out of. I’ve used cotton for mine, but you could use polyester, wool, or even canvas. I’d suggest not using anything too stretchy, as the dice will weigh it down and make it stretch. Get creative: use scraps from an old pair of jeans, or shirt. Look in used stores or in your grandmother’s closet. You can even go out and buy fancy fabric like leather or velvet. Because you barely need any fabric, maybe half of a foot, it won’t cost much.
You also need to decide on a string to close your bag. I used some ribbon that went well with my bag, but you could use cord, or an old shoe lace. You’ll also need a closure for your string. I found a bead that is small enough to hold my bag tightly closed. You could also use a closure from an old hoodie, or backpack; I know my raincoat has at least ten closures.
Sizing
Once you have your desired fabric, you need to decide how large of a bag you want. My bag is four inches by four and a half inches when finished and holds fifteen dice comfortably. It could hold up to thirty. For a 4X4.5 inch bag, you would need a 4.5X10 inch piece of fabric. This gives extra for seams, and also for the tube where the string will go. Decide on your size accordingly.
Instructions
Take your cut out piece of fabric, fold it in half, print side in. Sew along the two sides, leaving the top open. I like to leave the bottom of the bag without a sewn crease. Keep your bag inside out and fold over the top twice to make a hem. Make sure the hem is large enough to fit your string or ribbon through easily. Sew this piece carefully, as far down as possible, so the tube for the string stays intact. Once this is done, I sewed a buttonhole at one end of the tube for my ribbon to go through. If your fabric doesn’t fray, you can simply cut a hole into the tube and thread your string through.
Personalization
This is a very simple pattern and can be altered easily. The bag can be sewn to have rounded corners, or to be a shape other than rectangular. You could also sew the corners in to make a square bottom, like in my pencil case instructions. If you embroider or do bead work, that would be an easy way to add a little flair. You can also find sew-on patches at fabric stores to add something to your bag as well. In the past, I’ve even painted on the fabric when I couldn’t find a design I liked.
A dice bag should be your own and easily distinguishable as such. Play around with your own ideas and my design to create something unique that you really like.
Kirstin Doggart - Kirstin Doggart is a Creative Writing student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.
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