A home made bag for games

Games packed in large boxes tend to take up too much room to take away on holiday. But with this bag, which doubles as a board, you can pack them easily in a case or the boot of the car.

The bag is easy to make and consists of small squares of contrasting material sewn onto a plain back-cloth making a board suitable for chess, draughts or similar games.

You will need
For the back-cloth: a piece of thick flannel, ribbed velvet or any other heavy material in a plain color measuring 1.4m x 1.1m (4ft 2in x 3ft 6in) and a piece of fine muslin in the same measurements for lining it.

For the small squares which make up the board in the centre: two pieces of thick cotton, one plain (preferably to tone in with the back-cloth as in our pictures) and one patterned in matching colors: each measuring 63cm x 1.3m (2ft 1in x 3ft 9in). If you want, you can give the board extra body by ironing on some interlining. This is available from most haberdashery departments.

To make the bag
Start by making the back-cloth. Lay the muslin on the right side of the fabric for the back-cloth; machine the two together, along two of the longer sides and one of the short edges. Turn inside out and hand-sew the fourth side.

Iron all seams so that it lies flat. Before you start to cut out the squares from the plain and patterned cotton, draw one square out accurately on a piece of paper and use this as a pattern for cutting out 32 plain squares and 32 patterned ones. We worked to 10cm (4in) squares with a hem allowance of 1.5cm (½in) all round, making a square of 13cm (5in). Machine the squares together.

If you are sewing by hand, make sure the squares are well secured as the game bag will get a lot of wear. When all the squares are sewn together, iron out the seams carefully. If using an interlining, iron it on at this stage. Now place the board in the middle of the plain back-cloth and tack in place. Either machine all round or sew firmly by hand. Sew four toning ribbons or pieces of bias binding in the positions shown in the photographs, so that you can tie up the folded bag.

The playing pieces. To complete the game bag, make your own playing pieces for draughts or chess. From thick cardboard cut as many discs as you need in a diameter which will fit neatly in the middle of the squares.

A 7.5cm (3in) diameter fits onto a 10cm (4in) square.

You can color some of the circles and then use white cut-out figures on them, or leave them white and use colored cut-outs. From white paper cut out the simple outlines suggested on our pages and paste them on to the cardboard discs. Paint them and give the whole thing a coat of colorless varnish to make them resistant to handling.

The small envelopes which hold the playing pieces are made from rectangular pieces of material. The long edges are folded a third of the way down and sewn along the two folded-down sides to make a small bag. The remaining third then folds over to tie down with ribbon. For a really professional finish, line the bag in the same way as you backed the back-cloth.