Bettridge™ | Handmade Traveler Bag

Three alpacas stitched in fleece, bound for anywhere you go

Three cream-white alpacas gaze out from the front of this roomy quilted traveler, each one appliquéd in raised, densely coiled embroidery that gives their fluffy fleece real dimension you can almost feel through the screen. Soft peach-pink inner ears and delicate painted faces — dark eyes, blush noses — sit at the center of each portrait. Behind them, the body of the bag is quilted in broad vertical stripes that move through sage green, seafoam, teal, and indigo, with a botanical-print fabric on the handles and sides that ties the whole palette together. Claire and Riley found this piece the way they find everything for the shop their mother Margaret opened here in Cape May in 1978: they held it, looked hard at it, and decided it was exactly the kind of thing worth bringing home.

• Raised Alpaca Appliqué — Each of the three alpaca faces is built up in tightly coiled cream embroidery, creating a sculptural, touchable texture that sits proud of the quilted surface.
• Details — 19" × 9" × 9", roomy enough for a long weekend and soft enough to squash into a car boot.
• Gradient Stripe Quilting — The body moves through four distinct colors — sage, seafoam, teal, and deep indigo — in wide vertical panels stitched with fine all-over quilting lines that keep the bag structured.
• Botanical Handle Fabric — The dual top handles and side panels are cut from a floral-and-leaf print in greens, teals, and soft purples that echoes the body's color story without matching it exactly.
• The Last of This Run — We took what the workshop had left. Once these are gone we will not be getting them again.
• Looking After Her — Spot clean with a soft damp cloth and let her air dry. No tumble dryer — it flattens the quilting.

You pull this off the baggage carousel in Miami and the woman standing next to you immediately says, "Okay, I have to know where those alpacas came from."

⚠ Because every bag is made by hand, small differences in colour, stitching and placement will happen. That is not a fault — it is the proof a person made it.

This bag costs more than a plain nylon duffel, and we won't pretend otherwise — the hand-appliquéd faces and layered quilting take real time to make. It's for the woman who is tired of luggage that looks like everyone else's luggage.

“We've looked at a lot of bags. This one looked back at us.” — Claire & Riley, Cape May