Tutorial: Sew a Travel chess set with drawstring storage bag

Autumn from It’s Always Autumn shares a tutorial for making a handmade chess set. She made this one for her son. The board is pieced from two colors of flannel. For the pieces, she used craft bottle caps with chess piece symbols transferred on to the tops. (If you have a Silhouette cutter, I bet you could find a chess piece font and cut the symbols from craft vinyl.) It can also be a checkers set; just turn the bottle caps upside down and they’re checkers. When it’s time to put the game away, a drawstring bag will hold the board and all of the pieces. Go to It’s Always Autumn to see how to make one.

[photo from It’s Always Autumn]

Looking for more DIY sewing patterns to make your own bags, totes and clutches? Check these Sewing patterns out on Etsy.

Looking to chat about sewing? Check out our sewing group on Facebook with over 80K members.

Next Pattern:

It doesn’t matter whether you sew by hand or by machine, you need a pincushion. You need a spot to parks pins and needles and keep them within easy reach for when you need them again. There are a lot of styles of pincushion to choose from. Some magnetic, some fabric. Some cute, some purely functional. This “little bit extra” pincushion has a spot to store all the different types of pins and needles you might need while sewing. Polka Dot Chair has a free sewing pattern you can use to make one for yourself.

This handy little pincushion has a circular shape and is divided into sections to store different types of pins. The bottom section is for your regular straight pins. Just poke them in and they’re ready for when you need them. The top has one section with a felt flap perfect for holding your sewing needles. I don’t know about you but I don’t like mixing my hand sewing needles in with my pins on a pincushion. It makes it hard to find the needle when I want it. So having a separate section for the needles is a great idea.

This “little bit extra” pincushion also has a spot to hold a few fabric clips. Fabric clips have become popular alternatives to a traditional straight pin. They hold fabric pieces together without piercing the fabric, which is important when sewing leather, vinyl, or other materials that will show permanent holes from pins.

You can sew the “little bit extra” pincushion from large fabric scraps or small fabric cuts (fat eighth). You probably already have all the supplies you need to sew one in your sewing supplies already.

Get the free pattern for this “little bit extra” pincushion over at Polka Dot Chair.

[photo credit: Polka Dot Chair]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply