Friday, April 15, 2011

Tic Tac Toe Roll-Up

This is an idea that has been percolating in my head for awhile now. I have a son who LoVeS Tic Tac Toe. Yes, we can use a pencil and paper, but why not craft up a portable Tic Tac Toe board? I love the crayon roll-ups I've made and so a Tic Tac Toe Roll-Up seemed both easy and logical - my son is very, very happy! Want to make one too? Here's how it works:


Tic Tac Toe Roll-Up

Materials:

One 9 1/2" x 14" piece of fabric for the back

One 9 1/2" x 14" piece of fabric for the inside

One 5 1/2" x 6 1/2" piece of fabric for the inside pocket

One 2 3/4" x 6 1/2 " piece of iron-on interfacing

One square of black felt

Scraps of felt (two colors)

Heat and bond (a small piece will do - I prefer the heavy weight)

Button

Hair elastic


Instructions: 1. Cut your fabric pieces and interfacing as stated above . 2. From your square of black felt, cut four 1/2" strips the width of the square. On the paper side of your heat and bond, draw five "O"'s and five "X"'s. I cheated and used a large font I like and traced them. Iron all of the O's on one color of felt and the X's on the other color of felt. Cut the letters out on the lines. 3. Peel the paper off from the letters and now iron them on to the black felt. Cut them out leaving a 1/8" black edge on each letter. Set the letters aside for later.4. Iron your interfacing to the wrong side of half of your pocket piece. This is just to give it a little extra stability for all those little hands taking the pieces in and out of the pocket. 5. With right sides together, fold the pocket in half along the long sides (like a hot dog - teachers, you know what I mean :-)). Using a 1/4" seam, sew down one short side of the pocket and part way along the bottom. Backstitch and then with your needle up, move the pocket about 2" down and pick up sewing again along the rest of the bottom and up the remaining short side. Basically we're using the fold for the top of the pocket and sewing up the other three sides, leaving a small opening in the bottom for turning. Clip the two bottom corners and turn right side out. Press flat, being sure that the unsewn seam of your opening lines up evenly.
6. Top stitch along the top edge of the pocket.
7. Now sew the pocket on to the inside fabric along the shorts sides and bottom. Be careful to sew the opening down so that it catches the seam, in effect sewing that opening closed. I centered the pocket about 1 1/2" up from the bottom of the fabric.
8. Now place your black felt strips up on the top part of the inside fabric. Find the center and then move the strips around until you have the spacing you like. I centered my strips 1 1/4" in from each edge and left about a 1 1/4" space from the top of the pocket. Trim the felt strips as needed. Using black thread, sew the strips down along each of the four sides. Hint - pin your felt well and remove the pins as you sew so that the felt doesn't move or stretch or you sew.
9. This is what you should have now.
10. Pin your hair elastic at the center of the top - be sure that the big part of the loop lies toward the center of the fabric. With right sides together put the inside and outer fabrics together. Sew using 1/2" seam allowances along all outer edges leaving a 3" opening at the center bottom. Be sure to backstitch over the elastic (quite a few times).
11. Clip the corners off and turn right side out. Use chopsticks or another device to get your corners sharp. Iron flat and be sure your opening gets pinned closed so that the edges are even.
12. Top stitch all the way around, being sure to catch the opening and sew it closed. Just for good measure, I backstitched another couple of times over the elastic.
13. Roll up the game board and figure out where your button should be. Sew it on as you marked.
14. Add your "X"'s and "O"'s and off you go.

1 comment:

I love and read every comment - thank you!