Game Bag Tutorial

Hello Gamers!  Susie here.  I like to be crafty and make things to "enhance" our games.  One of the easiest things to do (and usually impresses friends when you drag them out) is to make some drawstring bags for your game.  They can be used for dice bags or even little gifts for people.

Here are some examples:  Small world (orange), The Duke (Blue and Red), my dice bag (pink), a random bag I made for my sister (white and navy), and the bag I made for this tutorial (I used the same fabric as I did for one of the Duke bags)

My dice bag with the dice in it.  I don't have a lot of dice that aren't also Chris', but these are my special dice that I like to keep separate. 

The Small world bags are my favorites.  The outside is a happy orange with little cartoon flowers and inside are skulls and crossbones.  I think it capture the theme of Small World nicely. No drawstring because we don't store things in this bag, just use them to draw the races and power tiles.

This is the basic tutorial I use to make all my bags for games.  It's a very clear step-by-step explanation of how to make a lined drawstring bag.  I do make a few size adjustments as well as other figits to the instructions.  For example, my pattern size is 8 inches wide and 9.5 inches tall for the outside of the bag and 8 inches wide and 8.5 inches tall for the lining. You can really make the bag in any size as long at the lining is 1 inch shorted that the outside of the bag, but maintains the same width.  I also made a bag that was 7" x 7" for the outside and 6" x 7" for the inside to show you a size comparison.

First things first, you have to have a sewing machine to make these bags!

This is my sewing machine!  It's a Singer Esteem, which only kind of is for teenage girls.  It was about $75 on sale from walmart and has survived being moved 4 times (once overseas via truck, boat, and train) and fallen off the back of a moving truck.  The tension is a little off now (stupid moving truck) but it serves my purposes.

You also have to understand some verbiage regarding fabric.  Here is a handy diagram!  One of my first figits is that the red crown fabric has a facing, meaning it the crowns will need to point up on both sides of the bag so instead of cutting one long swatch of fabric, I need to cut two smaller pieces out

Anatomy of fabric!  Important to know when you cut out your pattern.  Selvage is spelled sevlage, not selvedge.  Forgive the typo!

Anyways, below is the steps to making a bag from beginning to end.  Again, the tutorial has a much more detailed explanation on how to do it.

Freshly ironed fabric! This is fabric I picked out for the game The Duke.   I also have matching blue fabric to make the second draw bag for the tiles.  Picking out fabric is my favorite part of the whole process.  

Applying my pattern to the fabric.  Here is another change I make to the tutorial.  Because I need the crowns to face up on both sides of the bag, instead of putting the bottom of the patten on the fold to create one long strip of fabric, I cut out two smaller rectangles and then sew together to make sure it all faces correctly.

The inside of the bag also needs to be two separate pieces of fabric, so don't cut on the fold, cut near the selvage.

All my fabric cut out!  I also used a much smaller pattern to make a second bag to give away as a gift (it turned out tiny!).

Here is the outer fabric where I sewed the bottom together.  Notice that the crowns face different directs at the very bottom!  If you fabric doesn't have a facing, you can skip this step by cutting out your pattern along the fold and having one large piece of fabric. 

Backside of the fabric. I really recommending pressing the seam.   Pressing the seam means ironing the seam on both sides to make it flat and gives you a more finished and less rumped bag.

After I've sewing the lining to the outside of the bag.  Always iron and press the seems!  It can be a pain in the butt (especially since my iron and ironing board are in a difference room from my sewing machine) but it's worth it for a nicer finished project.

Here is a handy map for how to sew the bag together.  To turn the corner, the easiest thing to do is stop sewing, make sure the needle is in the fabric, lift the sewing machine foot, and then turn the fabric 90 degrees on the needle.   To make thegap, just back stitch when you get to that needle, raise the foot and slide the fabric down and start sewing again from the next needle. If you don't leave this gap here, you will not be able to turn the bag rightside out!  And inch or two is best.

After the bag is sewn together, ready to be pulled right-side-out through that little hole.

Hooray!  Like magic, just pull it through and make sure to poke your corners with a knitting needle, chopstick, or whatever.  Iron again to smooth out the bag.  Close the little open gap on the lining by sewing a very small seam across the gap.

Tuck the lining down into the bag and voila, bag!  

Fin!  

 Note:  I skipped the drawstring because I am out of drawstrings.   The drawsting is the trickiest part.  I also alter the directions a little because I'm bad at lining it up.  Instead of leaving a small gap when you sew the bag together, I just sew it all up, make the drawstring seams as recommended in the directions, and then use a seam ripper to delicately rip out the side seams.  Then, just use a paperclip or safety pin to thread the drawstring through the gap you made with the seam ripper.  The way I do it means a lot of swearing and fussing at Chris, but it keeps me from having to line things up and I can alter how high or low I want the drawstring on each bag.  I will give a small tutorial when I make bags for the Capitals (I have ordered fabric, but it hasn't arrived yet)