Thar handicrafts are built around two things: rilli quilts, pieced and stitched by hand from scraps of cloth, and dense, mirror-covered embroidery worked mostly by women of the district's Hindu Meghwar and Sodha communities. Both travel well, both are made in villages you may drive straight past, and both are worth buying in Mithi or a village bazaar rather than a city shop, if you know roughly what you're looking at.
This guide covers rilli quilts, Thari embroidery styles, and how to buy directly and fairly.
Rilli quilts: three techniques, one tradition
A rilli (also spelled ralli) is a patchwork or appliqué quilt, hand-stitched by women from Sindh and the desert belt running into Rajasthan and Gujarat on the other side of the border. Tharparkar is one of the traditional heartlands of the craft. Three techniques make up most rillis:
- Tuk (appliqué), where cut shapes are stitched onto a base cloth, usually in bold geometric patterns.
- Tukrin (patchwork), where small geometric pieces of fabric are joined into repeating designs, closer to what a patchwork quilt looks like elsewhere.
- Embroidered rilli, where the surface carries hand-stitched motifs and mirror-work rather than pieced fabric.
A finished rilli takes real time, often weeks, and is genuinely made for use rather than display: as bedding, as a floor covering, as a wrap. That's worth remembering when you see one being sold cheaply; a well-made rilli represents a lot of labour.
Thari embroidery: pakkoh, kacho and soof
Alongside rillis, Tharparkar has its own embroidery tradition, distinct from the ajrak block printing associated with upper Sindh.
- Pakkoh is a dense, heavily worked style historically linked to the area around Diplo and Mithi, combining tight buttonhole, chain and satin stitches with small mirrors set in a double-buttonhole edge. It is the style most people picture when they think of Sindhi mirror-work.
- Kacho, or soof, traces its roots to the Sodha Rajput community and works by counting threads in the base fabric, with satin stitches usually worked from the reverse side. It produces a finer, flatter surface than pakkoh.
- Mirror-work runs through both styles and is one of the clearest signatures of Sindhi embroidery generally, small round mirrors held in place with tight buttonhole stitching rather than glue.
Motifs draw from daily life and the desert around it: dunes, flowers, and above all the peacock, which recurs constantly in Thari embroidery and, among Hindu Meghwar embroiderers in particular, carries associations with a bridegroom. Once you notice it, you'll see it on shawls, wall hangings and quilt borders across the district.
What else you'll see for sale
Mithi's bazaar is the district's main marketplace for handicrafts, and stalls and shops there sell embroidered bedsheets, shirts, shawls, baby caps, wall hangings, and animal trappings for horses and camels, alongside silver jewellery and carved wooden boxes and chairs. Ajrak, the indigo-and-red block-printed cloth associated with Sindh more broadly, is widely sold here too, but it is worth knowing it is not made in Tharparkar itself; it comes from block-printing centres further north in Sindh, such as Hala and Matiari. If ajrak matters to you, buy it as Sindhi craft rather than expecting it to be a Thari product.
Buying directly and fairly
The clearest way to support the artisans who actually make Thar's embroidery and rillis is to buy from women in the villages you pass through, or from stalls in Mithi and Islamkot bazaars that sell what local households have made, rather than from resellers further afield who mark goods up without the maker seeing much of it.
A few practical points:
- Ask who made the piece, and if you're buying in a village, confirm you're paying the maker directly rather than a middleman. A short conversation is normal and welcomed.
- Expect handwork to cost more than machine-made imitations, and don't assume the cheapest piece is the best value; dense pakkoh work with real mirror-setting takes far longer than it looks.
- Prices for handmade rillis and embroidery vary too widely by size, technique and current demand to quote a reliable figure here; ask several sellers before buying so you get a sense of the range on the day, rather than accepting the first price offered.
- Ajrak sold as a table print, rather than genuinely hand block-printed with natural dye, is the cheaper end of the market, roughly PKR 200 to 1,200 (2026); naturally dyed, hand-printed pieces start from around PKR 5,000 and go up from there. Ask which kind you're being shown before you pay for the more expensive claim.
A note on a well-intentioned project that hasn't worked
The Sindh government built a purpose-made artisan colony near Mithi, the Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai Skilled Colony, on Nokot Road, with around 100 houses, 100 workshops and 25 shops intended to give craftspeople a proper base to work and sell from. It was finished in 2011, but reporting on the project since has found that artisans have largely been unable to make use of it for over a decade. It is a reminder that the most reliable place to find and buy genuine Thar handicrafts is still the working bazaar and the villages themselves, not a facility built for the purpose but left standing empty.
Is it worth buying here rather than online?
Yes, if a genuine piece and a direct transaction with the maker matter to you. Buying in Tharparkar means seeing the work before you commit and, often, meeting the person who made it, which is harder to verify from an online listing. It suits travellers happy to spend time browsing several stalls or villages rather than wanting a single guaranteed purchase; if you need something specific in a hurry, a reputable Sindhi crafts retailer online is the more predictable option, just not the more personal one.
If you're planning a wider trip through the district, our Tharparkar itinerary and places to visit in Tharparkar guides set out routes that pass through Mithi's bazaar and villages along the way.
Frequently asked questions
What is a rilli quilt?
A hand-stitched patchwork or appliqué quilt from Sindh and the wider desert region into Rajasthan and Gujarat, made using techniques including tuk (appliqué), tukrin (patchwork), and embroidered designs with mirror-work.
What is pakkoh embroidery?
A dense, heavily worked embroidery style from the Diplo and Mithi area of Tharparkar, combining tight buttonhole, chain and satin stitches with small mirrors set into a buttonhole edge.
Is ajrak made in Tharparkar?
No. Ajrak, the block-printed cloth widely sold across Sindh including in Mithi, is produced in centres further north such as Hala and Matiari, not in Tharparkar itself.
Where is the best place to buy Thar handicrafts?
Mithi's bazaar has the widest choice, and buying directly from women in villages along your route, where you can, puts more of the price in the maker's hands.
How much does handmade embroidery or a rilli quilt cost?
Prices vary too much by size, technique and demand to quote a single figure. Compare a few sellers before buying, and expect genuine handwork, especially dense mirror-work, to cost more than machine-made pieces.
