dice bag, and new crafty hobbies abounding

A few months ago, my guy and his friends realized that they have all been wanting to try Dungeons & Dragons, but all thought they didn't have anyone to play with. With this realization, they started a weekly (and sometimes thrice weekly!) game, and I was left at home alone, jealous of their nerding it up. So I started a board game night with my co-worker friends, and went on a tax-return funded game buying spree (support your local comic and gaming shop!). One of the games I couldn't resist was a D&D board game called Wrath of Ashardalon, which gets extra awesomeness points in my books for being single player friendly, for when I can't find anybody to play with but just can't resist some dungeon crawling. Anyway, I had so much fun with it that now I'm starting to be intrigued by the idea of proper D&D, and in a fit of "must be prepared in case I get invited one day", I ebayed a couple of dice sets (failing miserably at supporting my local comic and game shop, but sometimes you just need instant gratification shopping). And of course, then I needed something to put them in:

You knew there had to be a crafting-related point to that ramble :)

And being a seamstress (sewasaurus!), I couldn't just buy a dice bag. I had to make one, better, faster, with nicer seam finishing than it had before!

Is it weird to use super-hero fabrics for dungeon crawling paraphernalia? Crossing the fandom steams, oh no!

I knew I wanted to keep my two dice sets separate, so if I only need one there won't be a lot of sorting involved. It needed a drawstring for ease of access, and a rounded bottom for that fun gold-purse feeling. So during a marathon Marvel movie catch-up session (well, part of one), I sketched up a pattern, and hoped like hell that in 3D it would actually hold enough volume to work.

Pretty, girly dice!

And it did! Unlike most dice bags I've seen, this one doesn't have a lot of extra space in it, it will literally just hold two sets of standard size dice and that's it, which I personally like. Of course, I haven't actually gotten to play anything yet to use my dice, so I might yet discover that there is a purpose for that slack after all. Only time will tell, and in the meantime, I love how compact (and cute) this little bag is.

Two pieces of leftover dress sheets = totally a stashbusting success!

Because of how loosely woven and threadbare the batman fabric was, I ended up underlining the whole thing. If (when) I make more in a more stable fabric, I will probably sew the lining separately and change the construction to be a little more sleek. And seam finishing is so ingrained by now that all of the interior edges are edged with seam binding. FYI, seam binding all around the piece pre construction also served to hold the fashion fabric and underlining together.

Pretty! (and yes, that is cat hair *sigh*).

Now I'm even more excited to try out this D&D thing, just to show off my awesome bag, hahaha.

In other crafty news, I've been taking a pottery class with one of my co-worker/friends, and might be hooked! First class I made a completely pointless but utterly stinking cute Capybara paperweight-thing.

I forgot to put something in the picture for scale, but he's about 2.5" tall.

The glazing job is a little strange, but for a first try (with a substitute instructor's less than helpful guidance), I think it's just fine. Look at me not being a perfectionist!

Omg, the little ears just slay me!

It was rather funny having to explain to the entire class what a capybara was, and how the church declared it a fish so people in South America had something to eat during lent, and that actually they're pretty cute considering we're talking dog sized rodents.

I've been calling him Mr. Snuffles since before I was even finished shaping him, haha.

The other two things I've made so far are also rather science-nerd-ish, but they're still waiting to be fired. Next week!

Oh, and in even more crafty news, I took a class with my mom last weekend on making yarn using a drop spindle (mostly prompted by reading this book), and had so much fun I bought my own spindle and a bunch of extra not-yet-yarn to practice on. Since then I've been on a reading and gaming kick that has taken up all my free time, so I haven't actually got anything to show off yet, but the thought of knitting something using my own hand spun wool is so cool (also a little Amish) that practise must happen soon!

Do any of you get caught up in a whirlwind of new skill learning, only to discover that the number of hobbies you have is getting quite out of hand? Because seriously, I'm starting to feel like a one-woman medieval peasant village.