Cerise Magazine

September 2007 Issue

Features

• From the Editors
• Craft Check: Handkerchief Dice Bags
• Gaming in the Media: Reflections on Princess Peach...
• Market to Me: Feminine gamers

Interviews

• Blogger Interview: Regina Buenaobra [Acid for Blood]

Articles

• Gender & Live-Action Role Play: LARP and Social Darwinism
  Author: Samara Hayley Steele

Samara continues her series on gender and LARP.

• D&D for Girls?
  Author: John Kim

John discusses a recent incident involving gender and the official Dungeons & Dragons discussion forums, what went wrong and some ideas for making it right.

• Reclaiming Pink
  Author: Olivia Luna

Olivia takes a critical look at the some of the uses of the color pink in the world of handheld gaming.

• Sisterhood is powerful: women-oriented gaming communities
  Author: Andrea Rubenstein

Andrea brings up some of the positive aspects of women-oriented gaming communities.

• Is Gamerdom Really a Bastion of Masculinity?
  Author: Latoya Peterson

Latoya looks at the perceptions of gaming and gamers and what that means for the female gamers out there.

Gamer Stories

• The Dice of Evil
  by Robyn Fleming

Reviews

• Puzzle Quest
  by Olivia Luna
• Nocturne
  by Bonnie Moxnes
• Retro Review: Castle of Dragon
by Abby Wilson

Odds 'n Ends

• The Back Page

Want your article to appear in a future issue? Submit to Cerise today!

Because she knows I’m a dice-bag maven, [Senior Editor] Robyn’s been asking me to do a Craft Check since Cerise was just an idea, and now, months later, I’m finally getting around to it. Mea culpa – I hope this one’s enough fun to make up for the wait!

When I was sewing dice bags for my local gaming/comic-book shop, this was one of my favorite designs. It’s distinctive-looking but simple and quick to sew. It’s also tremendously easy to customize to any taste and skill-level: you can make the simple version you see here, or add any amount of embellishment, from lining, to beading, to embroidery. It’s also deceptively capacious: a fairly compact petal-point bag will hold an awful lot of dice, as you’ll see below.

And it’s tremendously versatile: while it makes a great dice bag, it can also be used for purses – hand bag or shoulder bag style, depending on the length of the drawstring – and makes an awesome reusable, environmentally friendly alternative to gift-wrap.

Cost: Very inexpensive. Supplies for this craft can be purchased for under $2 U.S.

Time: Anywhere from ten minutes to several hours, depending on the skill-level and equipment of the crafter and the degree of modification/embellishment.

Skill Level: This project is adaptable for any skill level. The version you see here is appropriate for even beginning sewers and young kids (with adult supervision!).

Equipment:

• Scarf, napkin, or hemmed, vaguely square-shaped piece of fabric (for this bag, I used a black cloth napkin made of a coarse poly/cotton blend). As a rule, lighter fabrics will work better than heavier ones, and the weight of your fabric will at least partially determine the size of your bag: A velvet-lined brocade bag won’t close properly unless it’s pretty darn big!
• Straight pins
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• Aprox. 1 – 1.5 yards ribbon
• A bodkin or small safety pin

Stuff you don’t need, but which may make this project easier:

• An iron
• A fabric marker or marking chalk (I used a silver paint pen for demonstration purposes, but I don’t recommend that, since it won’t wash out)
• A seam ruler

Step 1: Fold it up

Remember those origami fortune tellers you used to make in grade school? This bag starts out exactly the same way: take all four corners and fold them up toward the middle, then pin the folds in place (the pins should be perpendicular to the edges of the fabric, so that you can sew over them). It doesn’t matter if the edges and corners aren’t perfectly even.

Optional: If you iron the creases at this point, they’ll look much crisper on the finished bag, and it’ll be much easier to keep them even while you sew.

Step 2: Measure drawstring casing

Draw a second square inside the first one. I measured first with a seam ruler, to make sure the casing was the same size on all sides. The size of this casing will be determined by your ribbon: you want the ribbon to be able to pass comfortably through the casing twice, but not to be so loose that it won’t stay tight. (I made the casing on this example bag way too big.)

Step 3: Sew!

Now, sew along the line you drew. You can do this by hand, but it’ll be much faster on a sewing machine. Make sure to use a straight (not zig-zag) stitch.

If you’re going to add any embellishments, like embroidery or beading, you’ll want to have done them by this point, since it’s the last time your bag will be a flat surface.

Step 4: Cut drawstrings

Cut two drawstrings out of ribbon or cord. The length of the drawstrings should be determined by how big you want the mouth of the bag to be when it’s open, plus about three inches. If you want super-long drawstrings that you can use as shoulder straps, cut the drawstrings longer. You can make this bag with only one drawstring if you want, but I think it’s much cooler with two.

Step 5: Thread the first drawstring

Using the bodkin or safety pin, thread the first drawstring through the casing.

Because the drawstring will probably be shorter than the casing, you’ll need to bunch the casing up as you go along. Be sure to keep track of both ends of the drawstring so that you don’t pull the tail through after you!

When you have the first drawstring threaded all the way through, knot the ends together about an inch from the tips. At this point, the bag should be turned so that the casing is at the top and the “petals” are on the outside.

Step 6: The second drawstring

Start this drawstring diagonally across the bag from the first one, then thread it through exactly the same way.

Again, knot it off about an inch from the ends – it’s important to make sure at this point that both drawstrings are the same length!

Step 7: Fill and close

Fill your finished bag with dice, pencils, craft supplies, small rodents, or whatever strikes your fancy! To give you a sense of scale, the scarf I used for this bag was about 24” long on each side, and the finished bag holds 85 standard-sized dice with lots of room to spare.

Enjoy your petal-point dice bag!