Mini Dice Bag
Wouldn’t you hate it if one of your friends went on and on about the most awesome new anime, but never offered to lend you the DVDs? It does no good for someone to ramble on to her fellow geeks about something incredible, but then keep it all to herself. So, over the next few months, I’m going to share some wonderfully geeky craft projects with you all, so everyone can partake in the crafty goodness. These are all projects I’ve created myself, and are the sort of things I make for my friends and family, as well as to sell at cons.
Now, as much as I would love to sit down with each and every one of you and teach you how to crochet, embroider, or sew, I can only prepare so many teleportation spells each day, and there is that miss chance if I’ve never actually been to your house before. And while crafts can be taught over the internet, GDG is not a craft website.
So I’m writing this article (and will write all future craft project posts) as if you already know the basics of the craft. I know that’s likely not the case, so I will also provide some links with good tutorials and info which will hopefully be enough to get you started even if you’ve never set foot in a craft store before. And please, feel free to e-mail me with any questions you might have. I’ll be glad to help!
Enough with the introductions – let’s get started, shall we? Behold, adventurers! The geeky craft project you are tasked with conquering this week is a mini dice bag.
Mini Dice Bag, CR 1, 400 XP
To a gamer, a good dice storage system is nearly as important as the dice themselves. You need a way to get them to and fro, and keep them safe and warm (What? Don’t dice deserve to be warm?). Having a dice bag as personalized as your dice would be awesome, wouldn’t it? But it’s hard to find the perfect bag in the perfect color. Well, it won’t be so hard anymore – I’m going to show you how to crochet one yourself!
This mini-bag easily holds 3 or 4 full sets of polyhedral dice, making it the perfect size for your traveling dice (the ones you take to a friend’s house or to a con). The finished size will vary slightly based on your tension and the yarn and hook used, but it should stand about 4 inches tall and have a diameter of about 2 ½ inches.
Equipment List (Supplies Needed)
Supplies you need to gather for this project.
Yarn: Stick to a simple worsted weight yarn. I prefer acrylic for its easy care, but if you want cotton or wool, have at it. You don’t need much for this little bag.
A little bit of yarn in a contrasting color, some ribbon, or some cording: For making the drawstrings.
Crochet Hook: If you’re already an experienced crocheter, use a hook one size smaller than you would normally use with worsted weight yarn. You want the bag to stand up on its own and be tightly woven, but not so tight that it loses its softness. If you’re new, use the hook size recommended on the yarn label. I make my dice bags using a size I (5.5mm) hook.
Yarn Needle: For weaving in the ends when you’re all done.
Stitch Marker: To keep track of the first stitch of each round. If you don’t have stitch markers, a bobby pin or French wire or lever-back earring will work too!
Scissors: For cutting.
Measuring Tape: While size doesn’t matter too much on this project (if your bag turns out a little smaller or bigger than intended, your dice won’t mind), it’s nice to know if you’re in the ballpark.
Optional: Two large-hole beads for decorating the ends of the drawstrings.
Prerequisites (Skills Needed)
You need to know how to start your yarn on the hook with a slip knot, chain stitch (ch), slip stitch (sl st), single crochet (sc), triple crochet (trc), and join rounds.
If you’re new to crochet, or just need a refresher, here are some great sites to help you get going:
Lion Brand Yarn’s collection of illustrated instructions and videos
More instructional videos by a talented and generous crocheter named Teresa
Prefer a book? My favorite instructional crochet book is Teach Yourself Visually Crocheting by Kim Werker and Cecily Keim.
Roll For Initiative And Let The Battle Commence! (What To Do)
Once you have your slip knot on the hook, we’re ready to roll! The bag starts at the bottom, which is a flat circle (and is why it stands up so nicely!), then works up the sides.
Here is the pattern:
Ch 3, connect with sl st to form a ring.
Rd 1: Ch 1, 6 sc into ch ring (mark the first sc of each round with your stitch marker so it’s easy to find). Join with sl st in 1st sc.
This is what you should have after completing round 1.
Rd 2: Ch 1, 2 sc in each sc, join with sl st in 1st sc (12 sc total for the round).
Rd 3: Ch 1, 2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, repeat around, join with sl st in 1st sc (18 sc).
Rd 4: Ch 1, 2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat around, join with sl st in 1st sc (24 sc).
Rd 5: Ch 1, 2 sc in 1st sc, 1 sc in next 3 sts, 2 sc in next st, repeat around, join with sl st in 1st sc (30 sc).
Round 5 completed - the bottom of the bag is done!
Rd 6: Ch 1, sc in blo (back loop only) of each st around, join with sl st in 1st sc. (This is what creates the edge so you start working up the side of the bag.)
A few stitches into round 6 - by going into the back loop only, it turns an edge and you start working "up" the side of the bag.
Rds 7-20: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join with sl st in 1st sc. (You should have 30 sc in each round. Count a round every so often to make sure you aren’t adding in or missing a stitch.)
Rd 21: Ch 3, trc in next sc, ch 1, skip next st, trc in next 2 sts, repeat around, join with sl st in 3rd ch at beginning of rd.
Round 21 - you're making the spaces for weaving in the drawstrings.
Rd 22-23: Ch 1, sc in each st around, join with sl st in 1st sc. Finish off at end of rd 23 and weave in the ends.
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Weave the drawstrings through the spaces - go in opposite directions.
Now the bag is done and you need drawstrings. If you have some ribbon, ric-rac, or cording lying around your craft room, feel free to use some! Just cut two pieces about 30 inches long, and weave them through the spaces you created in round 21 in opposite directions. Knot the ends of each piece together and you’re done.
Or, you can take a contrasting color of yarn and make the drawstrings yourself. Chain 75, fasten off (make sure to leave about 6 inches of yarn tail at each end), and repeat to make the second drawstring. Weave them through as described before. You can also add a cool bead to the ends of the strings, but it’s not necessary. I do suggest tying a small knot in each tail of the yarn to prevent fraying.
Beads at the ends of the drawstrings are a nice touch!
And that’s it! You’ve just made a way-cool dice bag!
(You are more than welcome to print out this pattern for your own use, but please don’t print it out for others. If you want a friend to see this pattern, send them a link to this post. Copying and pasting just isn’t cool, yo.)
I Want Your Feedback!
Craft project patterns are a new thing at GDG, and it’s a new thing for me to try to write them for other people (my own notes make perfect sense to me…). I need to know what you thought of this post. Were the instructions clear enough? Too many pictures, or not enough? Let me know!
About c
This is a great pattern! I just finished my bag, and it worked really well. There’s only one comment I’d like to make – when you say “repeat around”, you might want to say from where.
For example, you have: “Rd 21: Ch 3, trc in next sc, ch 1, skip next st, trc in next 2 sts, repeat around, join with sl st in 3rd ch at beginning of rd.”
It would be clearer if you said:
“Rd 21: Ch 3, trc in next sc, *ch 1, skip next st, trc in next 2 sts, repeat from * around, join with sl st in 3rd ch at beginning of rd.”
I could just be used to other patterns that have the * in them, but it seems clearer in my head with it there.
J – Awesome, you made one already? That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Thanks so much for the feedback on the pattern notation – that’s exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for. I’m going to be presenting this project at a con panel, so I need to make sure my instructions are uber-clear. I’ll be refining the pattern and will edit the post after I’ve got it all shiny and refined.
You know, I was thinking about making a chainmail dice bag, since at the moment I don’t have any other chainmail projects lined up.
Sean – I wanna see it if you make one!
J – Do you remember how long it took you to make your bag?
It took me about 2 hours. I posted a picture on my twitter of it, and linked to you. ^__^
I’m totally showing this (via link of course) to my crafty friend. I’m crafty too, just not in a follow a pattern kind of way, so my plan is for her to figure it out, then hit me over the head with a brick til I get it…
J – thanks again for all the pictures and feedback! It makes me feel great that I’m inspiring someone to be crafty and creative.
Kat – Whatever works!
Be sure to let me know if I can help in any way.
Thanks for posting! My friend is just getting back into D&D and asked me to crochet a dice bag for him.
I found your pattern, and some crazy colored cotton yarn in my stash, and I’m getting to it this week
Awesome, Erin! Let me know how it turns out!
Well, I just learned crochet, and this is the first thing I made! It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a usable bag. I’ll show E. if she makes it to Thursday night crafting this week.
Yay!!
I wanted to make a dice pouch as a Christmas gift for my cousin who plays D&D, but there are so many different purse patterns to sort through to try and find a pouch.. Then, as I don’t play, I have no idea what dimensions would suit a big ol’ handful of weird dice. So, I searched “crochet d&d dice pouch” with fingers crossed that I wouldn’t get patternless results on Etsy and BAZINGA! Thanks to you I found exactly what I needed! THANK YOU^10! This is so awesome! Whipped one of these bad boys out in no time and it turned out great! YES!!! Thanks again!!!
I’m literally playing D&D right now and we took a short break and I bought a new set of dice and decided I needed a pouch for carrying them. I was looking on crochet sites and blogs I frequent and just couldn’t find what I wanted. Then I just typed “crochet dice pouch” google, it was the first thing to pop up and was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the pattern and know that another geek girl appreciates it.
Hi! I just finished making one, didn’t take long at all. I used a dark green yarn for the bag and then braided brown and black yarn together for the drawstring. Works perfectly! Looks like something Link would carry. Hopefully my guy likes it too
This is the first time I’ve ever tried crocheting in the round and while it’s not perfect, I’m going to chalk that up to operator error. It is really awesome, though, and I can’t wait to show it off at D&D tomorrow!
I absolutely love this pattern. I’ve made several bags for friends who play Magic The Gathering and they make perfect dice companions. I have a question though. During the first few rounds when you give a number of stitches you should make, for example: Rd 2: . . . (12 Stitches Around), I always have a few empty stitches in between the 12th stitch and the beginning. When I Sl St it kind of squeezes the circle inward and doesn’t look entirely like the example photo you posted. Am I doing something wrong?
HI! Love this pattern. My son found it and asked me to make him one, as a crafty momma there is nothing better than that! I made the bag easy enough, but am confused how to weave the ties through. I have tried a few different ways but it doesn’t seem to be what is specified in your pattern. Why weave in opposite directions? Are the two strands coming out on opposite sides of the bag? I can’t quite tell form the pic. Thanks!
This is AWESOME. As a person who only started crochet about a week ago, I’ve already made two! Very easy to follow instructions. Thank you sooo much!
I love this pattern and have made a few to give away at the local gaming convention. I just decided to make one using plarn (yarn made from plastic bags). It came out pretty well.
I love this pattern. I’ve already made five of the dice bags for my gaming group.
Thanks for the pattern it is wonderful! I just finished a superman themed one for my husband. It is super easy to do stripes of colorto make the bag really unique.