I’d been using a card deck box to hold my dice, but needed that box for a new deck I built decided something more refined was in order.

I decided to draft up the design on my own. It’s fairly simple in its execution, but does exactly what I need it to, so we will count this one as a win.

The Process:

First I used pencil crayon and traced two identical circles onto fabric (tracing on the back of the fabric is usually preferred). I used a circular baking pan to get the size I wanted.

One fabric will be the outside, the other will be the inside lining; you can obviously use two of the same fabrics if you want.

I used some fabric that caught my eye in the clearance section - I think it was last year’s Christmas stock, but I like it and the pattern/colour combo is neutral enough to use year round :)

Next, lay the circles on top of each other with the right sides of the fabric facing inwards.

Pin the two pieces of fabric together to make sure they don’t shift while you are sewing.

Now you can begin sewing around the edge of the piece. I used my quilting foot so there is a ¼ inch seam allowance on the outside.

This was my first time in a looooong time sewing circles and it did require a bit more attention that the straight lines my quilts have been lately.

DO NOT sew all the way around the bag. You need to leave a gap (like shown above) between where you started your stitching and where you finish, this is key to the next few steps!

Now you’re going to use that space you left in the stitching to pull the piece inside out (which is, since we started with the backs showing, actually right side out!). Now you’ll have one circle with each of your fabrics on one side.

The next step is to get whatever rope or ribbon you want to use as a fastener.

The easiest way to work this is to cut a piece that is a couple of inches longer than the total circumference of your fabric circles. so basically lay the rope out around the outside edge of your circle and cut to that length plus a bit of extra.

Take your length of rope and fold it in half. The two ends will need to stay outside of the bag, so take the middle section and insert it into the hole in the stitching that you just used to turn the bag right side out. Feed it all the way to the opposite end of the circle, and pin it in place. Now pin the rope to the edge of your circle every few inches all the way around the bag. Start at the first pin and work your way to the front along each side.

This will keep the rope where you want it for the next step.

This step is to sew a second seam around the bag, on the inside of the rope you just added.

Don’t worry about gaps this time, this seam can go all the way around and meet up with where you started.

I chose to use on of my sewing machines “fancier” preset stitches for this one, just for a little more of a decorative flair.

Once this circle was done I also sewed a couple small lines from the inner stitch circle to the outside circle in the space between where the two ropes come out of the bag, and tied a knot in each rope end. This is to make the holes smaller so I don’t have to worry about the end of the ropes getting pulled inside the fabric.

Ta-Da!!!

Now I can cinch up the bag to close it. There is a lot more extra rope when the bag is fully closed, so you can wrap it around to tie the bag sealed, and still have enough left over to hang it from your belt or something if you choose.

If you never want your bag to open more than a little bit you can always cut the rope to the appropriate size here, but I designed this specifically to open up into a little bowl/tray that I can actually roll them in :)