Hand-made Tarot Bags & Cloths

[tabbycat]

Encouraged by the response to my tarot bags at the London Meet-up, I've decided to offer them on the forum. Two designs are already available on Major Tom's site. My bags are entirely hand stitched and made of good quality cotton fabric, usually with metallic gold/silver enhancing the designs, and are lined with toning fabric. They're fairly large - 6 x 9 inches - and will take most decks comfortably. I use soft cord or hand-made cord to match the colours of the bag, and add a toning bead string, including a trademark "tabbycat" bead. Due to fabric availability I can usually only make 2 or 3 of each design. Mine is a smoke-free home, but there may be the odd cat hair in evidence! Postage to the UK and Europe is included in the price, but further afield please add £1, as the Post Office has recently increased its prices in the UK.

Cosmic I made this one for my Cosmic Tribe deck, as I thought the sheer exuberance of the pattern would suit the mood of the cards! It's lined in purple and has a hand-made multicoloured cord. The bead string ends in a pewter pentacle with Native American symbols in red - don't know why, but that seemed to fit! I could use a different red or purple pentacle, or leave it out altogether. The price with the pentacle is £12.99 but £10.99 without.

Elizabethan This is lined in a green and cream knot garden design fabric, has a hand-made pale green cord and doesn't have beads. The price is £8.99. I can also make this one in a red version of the same fabric, which would be lined in yellow with gold spirals.

Celestial This one is on Major Tom's site - this picture shows the gold pentacle on black lining. It has navy blue cord and the beads include Tibetan silver, Indian lustre glass and Blueberry Quartz. The price is £10.99. Those of you who were at the London meeting will have seen a variant of this bag with a lining of gold swirls and cream stars on black, which matched the double-sided spread-cloth - I have enough of that fabric to make 2 bags and one spread-cloth, so I'm offering a bag and spread-cloth set for £20 as a special one-off bargain! I could make another spread-cloth, but it would have to use the black and gold pentacle fabric with the blue stars and moons one. The spread-cloths are approximately 18 x 21 inches.

If you're looking for a bag in a special design or colour scheme, please contact me. I may be able to find just the fabric you're looking for!

[tabbycat]

Just an update - I'm now out of the blue/green Elizabethan fabric and haven't yet found any more. I still have enough of the red version left to make one more bag.
My bags have concealed hems and seams, so they can be turned inside-out and used with the lining fabric on the outside (doesn't work so well with the Cosmic, as the beads would then be on the inside) so you're really getting two bags for the price of one! How's that for value?
To those of you who have already placed an order - thanks! I'll be sewing away like mad over Easter and probably posting by the end of next week.

[OliviaRose]

Hi~ I just wanted to let you know that I got my Celestial tarot bag today and it's even more beautiful in real life than it was in the pic! I LOVE the fabric and the beads are GORGEOUS, nice and heavy and high quality!
Thanks so much!

[tabbycat]

Glad that the bag arrived safely and that you liked it - thanks!

I'm working on some new designs - I've bought lots of new fabrics and beads! I'll post some pictures when they're ready.

[fairyhedgehog]

I love my Celestial tarot bag too! I do think it is very good value as the price includes P&P.

The fabric is much prettier in real life than it is online, and those beads are just beautiful.

[tabbycat]

Here are some more of my hand-made bags! All of them are about 9 by 6 inches and all are made of cotton fabric. I make them to order, so it can take 10-14 days to send one out. The beads may vary from the ones in the scans, but I do try to find unusual ones to match the fabric. My home is smoke-free but I do share it with three cats, so I can't swear that there won't be an occasional tabby hair! Postage to the UK and Europe is included, but I'm afraid I have to add £1 for anywhere else in the world.

Elizabethan
I’m out of the blue colourway of this fabric, but I have it in gold, which is lined with a yellow fabric with gold spirals and has gold cord. The price is £8.99.
I also have this design in a rather vivid colourway of crimson, yellow and emerald green. Haven’t made a bag in it yet, but I’d probably line it in the gold spiral fabric in red, and use red cord.

Luxor
A lovely gold and purple Egyptian fabric (from Timeless Treasures) covered in symbols - anhks, the Sphinx, the Eye of Horus, the Phoenix, etc - and highlighted with metallic gold. I lined this one with Makower’s Atlantis Scroll fabric, a design of golden spirals on golden brown, and added a hand-made gold and purple cord. The bead-string is in purple and gold and ends in a pewter Phoenix pendant, which is part of a range of Egyptian birth-sign pendants.
The signs available are the Sphinx (27th Dec-25th Jan), Shu (26th Jan-24th Feb), Isis (25th Feb-26th Mar), Osiris (27th Mar-25th Apr), Amun (26th Apr-25th May), Hathor (26th May-24th June), Phoenix (25th June-24th July), Anubis (25th July-28th Aug), Thoth (29th Aug- 27th Sept), Horus (28th Sept-27th Oct), Wadjet (28th Oct-25th Nov) and Sekhmet (26th Nov-26th Dec). All are decorated with sparkly gold enamel. I picked the Phoenix to go with the fabric, so feel free to choose whatever sign you like. Because of the pewter pendant, the price of this bag is £12.99.
I also have the same Egyptian fabric design at approximately half the size, so you get more symbols per bag! I found it in blue/purple, gold/tan and cream/stone, but to be honest, the cream/stone colourway seems a little dull to me. Haven’t made up any bags with these yet, so I’m not sure what the linings/cord/beads will look like, but I will take orders if anyone wants to risk it!

Chrysanthemum - Sorry, all gone! Will have some other Japanese theme bags available soon.
A Japanese-style fabric in shades of cream, green, salmon-pink, lilac and purple topped with lots of metallic gold, lined with a cream fabric with tiny sprigs of leaves in gold. Hand-made cord in purple, although I could change that to green or salmon-pink (or both!) as I do have thread to match those colours in the fabric. I found some pretty spiral beads with aurora borealis and green metallic coating to put in the bead-string. The price of this bag is £10.99.

Monsoon
A wonderful collage fabric in shades of crimson, orange, green and gold, plus lots of metallic gold highlights. It has Persian-style carpets and jewels. It even has elephants! I lined this in a matching fabric from the range which is a print of jewels crowded together, and added a crimson cord. Didn’t think it needed beads, so the price is £8.99.

Pumpkin
This is a duller fabric and has no gold highlights, but I think it’s rather sweet. It’s a print of pumpkins in shades of dull orange, tan, green and indigo, and I lined it in a toning print which also has pumpkins on. It has a coppery-brown cord and a bead-string that ends in a glass lampwork pumpkin bead. The price is £10.99

[December Fairy]

Love the pumpkin. Sending PM.

[ArwenNightstar]

Sending note regarding the Monsoon

[jackdaw*]

Sending PM re: Luxor, and the Monsoon if you are able to make more than 1.

[jackdaw*]

Oops ... I had PM'd tabbycat to thank her, but did not do so here! Her bags are beautiful and very well done, worth every penny! Thanks again!