Travel Noughts and Crosses Game

Take a trip down memory lane with this stitched fabric noughts and crosses set, which is a lovely tactile take on the traditional game. It’s ideal to take on your travels as all the counters fit neatly inside the board. It folds up compactly and has a handle to make it easy to carry and hang up to store.

Essentials

Fabrics: spotted, pale lemon; gingham, pale
pink; pale blue; cherry print, red; blue; pink;
floral print, blue; pink
Thread: machine, red; blue; lemon
Wadding, 35cm square
Ribbon, tape measure, 1m Button, large, one
Interfacing, fusible, lightweight
Glue stick, acid-free

Dimensions List

32.5cm square

Make a travel game

Cut two 34cm squares from lemon spotty fabric and set one aside. Cut two 9cm squares from pink cherry print, two from blue cherry and one from red cherry fabric. Find the centre of the large lemon square by folding it in half, creasing, then folding it in half the other way and making another crease.
Place the centre of the red cherry square onto the centre of the yellow square. Pin in place and machine stitch around it twice just in from the edge using red thread. Place the other four cherry squares so that the innermost corners of them are 1.5cm diagonally from the four corners of the red square. Stitch around each one twice in contrasting thread. Press on the reverse. This is the board front.
Cut a piece of wadding slightly larger than the yellow square and pin it to the back of the board front. Using red thread, machine stitch a grid comprising of three lines each 2mm apart, in between the squares as shown.
Take the second square of lemon fabric for the back and pin it right sides together with the front. Fold a 25cm piece of tape measure ribbon in half and trap in one side in the middle so the raw ends stick out and the printed side is face down to the board front. Allowing for a 5mm seam allowance, stitch all the way around leaving a gap for turning. Clip across the corners, remove any excess wadding and turn out. Close the opening, press, then topstitch 1cm in from the edge in matching thread. Set aside.
From pink and blue gingham fabrics, cut four 8cm squares from each. Download the templates and use them to cut out four noughts from pink floral print and four crosses from blue. Back them with interfacing and machine stitch to each square so that the blue floral is on the pink spot and the pink floral on the blue spot. Iron on the reverse.
Cut eight 8cm squares in lemon fabric and pin one to each counter front, right sides together. Allowing for a 5mm seam allowance, stitch all the way round leaving a gap for turning. Trim the corners, turn right side out, press and topstitch just in from the edge closing each opening. On the blue squares, stitch a scallop pattern around the noughts. On the pink squares, sew a scallop in red around the edge of the square. Set aside.
Place the board right side down with the handle at the top. Cut a piece of tape measure ribbon 75cmlong and hem both ends. Fold in half and pin it at the right-hand edge of the board, placing it 9cm from the top and 1cm in so there is 44cm of tape at the left. Stitch in place across its narrow width.
Use small leftover scraps of fabric to make a ‘playtime’ tag for the front to measure 5cm x 7.5cm and attach with a big button. To fold up your finished game, place the noughts and crosses in the middle, fold the bottom third of the board up, followed by the right side in, then the left. Wrap the ribbon around and tie.