NOBODY knows why the first of March brings marbles, but it certainly does. Some games really belong to the season in which they come as coasting and snowfights, but other games are played at certain times of the year for no reason except that they always have been and always will be. If some one should ask a boy—any boy, why it wouldn’t be better to play football in the summer and baseball at Thanksgiving time, he couldn’t tell you, but his sense of the fitness of things would be outraged.
And so, when the snow goes away, and the frost comes out of the ground, and the sap begins to run in the trees, and a boy’s toes wiggle and wiggle and long to kick out of his shoes and dig themselves into the soft mud, it is quite the proper thing for him to hunt up all his last year’s marbles, and ask his sister—or somebody else’s sister—to make him a bag to hold them, so that he will be ready for the season’s marble campaign.
The simplest marble bag to make is one which is made in just the same way as a tobacco pouch. Take an oblong piece of heavy tan canvas, measuring twelve inches long by five inches wide. Tan does not show the dirt readily, and the heavier the material is the better, for the bag is not going to be gently handled. Double this piece of canvas in the center, so that it forms a bag six inches deep by five wide. Sew up the two side seams with a coarse needle and very heavy linen thread, and make the seams very strong. The sewing should be about a quarter of an inch back from the edges. Then “scrape” the seams open, which simply means to run your thumb nail along the seams right where the joining is, so that one raw edge shall be folded toward each side. Next make a hem at the top by folding the material over once, and then again. This hem should be about a quarter of an inch wide, and in sewing it down leave a space unsewed on one side where it crosses the seam, so that the draw string can be run in. Turn your bag so that it will be right side out, and the seaming all on the inside. A piece of heavy, wrapping-paper twine twelve inches long will make a fine draw string, by running it through the hem with a bodkin and tying the two ends together.
Pattern of a Marble Bag.
Another marble bag that will prove very satisfactory, and will be so unusual that the boy who owns it can gloat over the other fellows, is made of very heavy chamois, or buckskin. A paper pattern is made first, like Fig. 1. It measures two and a half inches across the top, four and a half inches from side to side at a point three and three-quarters inches below the top, and its height is six and a half inches. After these points have been determined a boy can mark in the vase shaped outline freehand. When the pattern is made and cut out, lay it on the buckskin, holding it carefully, so that it will not slip, and cut four pieces just alike. Then take a large darning needle or a “rug” needle and thread it with a strand of raffia. If red, or blue, or green raffia are used instead of the ordinary natural color, it will make the sewing very decorative. Take two of the pieces of buckskin, and, beginning at the bottom, sew them together with the stitch that is used for making baseballs. This is done by taking a stitch up from underneath, then crossing over, and taking a stitch up from the under side of the other piece, then back to the first piece and so on, drawing the raffia snug each time. Instead of making a knot at the beginning, leave the raffia hanging loose for about an inch or more, and when the top of the seam is reached, fasten the raffia tight before cutting off. Next join the third piece to the second in the same way, the fourth to the third, and then the fourth to the first, so that all four together form a bag. Take the four ends of raffia at the bottom and knot them snugly together, two by two. They may be trimmed off short, or left hanging loose to form a tassel for decoration. Now take a narrow piece of soft wood and slip it inside the mouth of the bag, so that you can cut slits for the draw string. They are cut with a sharp penknife and should come just at the narrowest part, or neck of the bag. If the upper ends of the cuts are three-quarters of an inch from the top of the bag, and the cuts themselves a half inch long, they will be about right. There are four cuts in each section making sixteen cuts in all. Next take three pieces of raffia twenty-four inches long. Knot the three together at one end, and then braid them tightly into a cord. When the other end is reached knot it as you did the first. String this cord through the slits in the neck of the bag just as though you were weaving—under one, over one, under one, over one—and then when it is all strung, tie the two ends together in a square knot.It makes an exceedingly unique bag, and will hold all the marbles a boy can win, and besides winning marbles he will win the envy of every other boy who sees his fine, new marble bag.
WHITTLED SCHOOL BOX CHAMOIS MARBLE BAG
