Foldable, Transportable Dice Tray

To make a dice tray like the one below you will need the following materials:

• Sheet of A4 paper or card – to use for the template
• Pair of sharp scissors
• 1/2 meter medium weight iron on interfacing
• 1/2 meter printed cotton fabric with a pattern of your choice
• 1/2 meter of plain cotton fabric
• x1 spool of cotton thread
• x4 pairs of Snap Fasteners a.k.a Poppers – metal or plastic
• x1 set of Snap Fastener tools
• A sewing machine
• Standard home iron

Fabric Choice

This project works best with cotton fabric which can be purchased from most fabric stores and comes in a vast variety of colours and patterns. Try to choose a patterned fabric and a second fabric that compliments it.

Stay away from stretch fabrics such as Jersey or knit fabrics as these can be stretched out of shape, fray and will make assembly harder.

1/2 meter is way more than you will need for one tray but most fabrics require a minimum order of 1/2 meter – you’ll be able to make several trays with it. You could also use a Fat Quarter which is another standard measurement fabric is available in.

One pair off scissors or two?

You can complete this project with just one set of scissors. However, using scissors to cut paper will dull them quickly. This will make cutting fabric difficult as you won’t get a smooth, clean cut.

I would advise using two sets of scissors – one for paper and one for fabric – or use a rotary cutter and a cutting mat.

What is Interfacing?

Interfacing is used to back the fabric – making it more rigid. This is important for the tray to hold its shape. Interfacing can be bought from most craft stores but you will specifically need iron on interfacing.

When applying interfacing to fabric, always make sure you have the glue side face down before applying the hot iron – if the iron comes into contact with the glue…. you got a lot of cleaning up to do!

Snap Fasteners

You can purchase these online or from craft stores – many sets come with the tool required to install them or are hand sewn.

Thread

Most standard cotton thread will be sufficient for this project. You should choose a contrasting colour to your fabric choices or one that blends in with it.

Sewing Machine

You don’t need an all singing all dancing one and you won’t need a special needle. Just a standard machine and needle will be fine for this project.

Last year, my home RPG group finished our 3 year Through the Breach campaign – we downed the Big Bad, had sufficiently epic epilogues for our characters and saved the world of Malifaux.

We were eager to start in on our next adventure; A Force & Destiny game set in the decade leading up to the Battle of Yavin.

I wanted to start the new campaign with a bang and wanted to give each player something that would both useful, a nod to the new campaign and something to say “Thanks for joining us for the next campaign”

I decided to go with a dice tray – since the new system uses dice instead of cards and pools can get quite large. I wanted something people could take away with them and use elsewhere too.

So, I drew up plans and went through a couple of iterations of the portable dice tray. I’ve included a gallery of the final product below and next up, I’ll detail the materials I used followed by a template you can use for your own trays and instructions on how to assemble them.