About a year ago a friend approached me about joining a campaign he wanted to do. I'm a big fan of fantasy, so I was all for it. Unfortunately that campaign fell apart before it even started due to other players quitting. Fast forward to just after Thanksgiving last year and another chance came up. We finally got to start playing. I got really into using this wonderful site for building characters, and have since purchased basically everything available here. But that wasn't enough. I started taking an interest in my dice, and more specifically the bag holding them.
So I started learning to sew. I learned by making bags. It was slow, and they weren't high quality but I liked them. I could make whatever color I wanted, and even figured out how to make a bag that opened up into it's own dice tray of sorts. Basically ended up being a fabric bowl, the edges held themselves up thanks to the draw string. I also dabbled in the traditional dual drawstring bags.
My wife let me buy a sewing machine a few weeks ago to further my hobby, and one day I had a couple of my bags on me to show one of my friends who is in the D&D campaign with me while I was in town. Happened to have the owner of one of our local game shops walk by when I was showing them off, and he took a real interest in them. So now not only do I get to make bags for myself and my friends (and my kids, my son wants probably six more already for his stuffed animals), I now have a request from a shop that wants to try stocking them and seeing if they'd sell! I'm still learning new ways of doing things, but I hope people are interested enough to want to buy them.
Here's an example of the two I made last night and this morning on my machine, they aren't perfect, but I'm still getting the hang of using a machine to do this, and figuring out ways around certain limitations (Like the needle guard preventing sewing too close to eyelets). I know black is plain, but I like black, and I can make a ton out of a single yard of cloth, so I wont be changing colors constantly or my house will look like a fabric store.
The one on the right is single layered, and the one on the left is dual layered. I found that doing the dual layer is actually easier, since I don't have to fold over and sew down the lip for the strings. Yes those are paracord. More durable than yarn and I don't live in an area with a craft store to get pretty strings to use. I kind of like the rugged haphazard style myself. Also, the dual layer adds an interesting bonus, since I use four layers of cloth (two for each side) I can actually use up to four different colors at once depending on what I want to do. I can also look into getting different colored paracord for the strings, and really customize the bags. My machine is actually capable of doing lettering as well, I just haven't figured out that particular feature yet, so as I go along the bags will soon be able to have custom wording on them too.
If anyone else does this, and has any tips or knowledge to offer, I am always open to suggestions. I'm still learning and have a long way to go to really get good at what I'm doing.
Those look so good! I'd definitely get one if they were sold at a store nearby, especially if they had some more embellishments on them.
Couple of sewing tips here:
When your sewing machine acts up, take the threads out. That usually works on mine. Oh and also there are special needle guards that are made to be used in small spaces (I don't know the English name for them sorry) and don't be afraid to use the hand crank to maneuver in tight spots!
Keep up the good work!
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About a year ago a friend approached me about joining a campaign he wanted to do. I'm a big fan of fantasy, so I was all for it. Unfortunately that campaign fell apart before it even started due to other players quitting. Fast forward to just after Thanksgiving last year and another chance came up. We finally got to start playing. I got really into using this wonderful site for building characters, and have since purchased basically everything available here. But that wasn't enough. I started taking an interest in my dice, and more specifically the bag holding them.
So I started learning to sew. I learned by making bags. It was slow, and they weren't high quality but I liked them. I could make whatever color I wanted, and even figured out how to make a bag that opened up into it's own dice tray of sorts. Basically ended up being a fabric bowl, the edges held themselves up thanks to the draw string. I also dabbled in the traditional dual drawstring bags.
My wife let me buy a sewing machine a few weeks ago to further my hobby, and one day I had a couple of my bags on me to show one of my friends who is in the D&D campaign with me while I was in town. Happened to have the owner of one of our local game shops walk by when I was showing them off, and he took a real interest in them. So now not only do I get to make bags for myself and my friends (and my kids, my son wants probably six more already for his stuffed animals), I now have a request from a shop that wants to try stocking them and seeing if they'd sell! I'm still learning new ways of doing things, but I hope people are interested enough to want to buy them.
Here's an example of the two I made last night and this morning on my machine, they aren't perfect, but I'm still getting the hang of using a machine to do this, and figuring out ways around certain limitations (Like the needle guard preventing sewing too close to eyelets). I know black is plain, but I like black, and I can make a ton out of a single yard of cloth, so I wont be changing colors constantly or my house will look like a fabric store.
The one on the right is single layered, and the one on the left is dual layered. I found that doing the dual layer is actually easier, since I don't have to fold over and sew down the lip for the strings. Yes those are paracord. More durable than yarn and I don't live in an area with a craft store to get pretty strings to use. I kind of like the rugged haphazard style myself. Also, the dual layer adds an interesting bonus, since I use four layers of cloth (two for each side) I can actually use up to four different colors at once depending on what I want to do. I can also look into getting different colored paracord for the strings, and really customize the bags. My machine is actually capable of doing lettering as well, I just haven't figured out that particular feature yet, so as I go along the bags will soon be able to have custom wording on them too.
If anyone else does this, and has any tips or knowledge to offer, I am always open to suggestions. I'm still learning and have a long way to go to really get good at what I'm doing.
Those look so good! I'd definitely get one if they were sold at a store nearby, especially if they had some more embellishments on them.
Couple of sewing tips here:
When your sewing machine acts up, take the threads out. That usually works on mine. Oh and also there are special needle guards that are made to be used in small spaces (I don't know the English name for them sorry) and don't be afraid to use the hand crank to maneuver in tight spots!
Keep up the good work!