Ramadan Perler Prayer Mat {Tutorial}

We made this prayer mat craft as it has become a tradition that we begin each Ramadan crafts 30 day challenge with Perler beads as part of our greeting to family & friends.

In the past, we have enjoyed making a crescent moon and star, a sheep, a Basmala, a Ramadan lantern banner and last year, we made a mosque.
Prayer mats are placed between the ground and Muslims for cleanliness during Islamic prayer. When praying, the mihrab a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque, is represented as an arch and must be at the top of the mat. All Muslims are required to know the qibla (direction towards Mecca) from their home or where they are while traveling so they are able to point their mats.
Perler beads are great for little hands to keep busy during Ramadan. They can be enjoyed by girls or boys and the artwork could be flat, or even 3D. Over the years, as my kids have gotten older and the fear of beads going into the mouth has long ceased, I have found that leaving the beads out on the coffee table (next to our reading & prayer niche) all Ramadan long, leads to some great imaginative work.

As usual, since there is no set pattern for a prayer mat, so my daughter drew out her design to have an idea of size. She decided to make her mat 19 beads by 13 beads, with an added fringe of seven beads. She settled on the color blue and created a pattern of receding rectangles that ended in an unique design in the center.

To start, she laid out the beads, while counting them to make sure the pattern stayed consistent with her initial drawing.

One the prayer mat outline was done, my daughter made sure the fringe was even all the way around.

Next the beads need to be ironed to fuse together.

Check the manufacturers directions for length of time to leave the beads under the iron but your prayer mat should look something like this.

Note that the Perler beads might look different on the other side, as they melt.

While we had the beads out, we went ahead and updated a few numbers and broken letters of our Ramadan greeting.

Once all the letters were done, our prayer rug was ready to be added. Now our Ramadan greeting is done. Feel free to share it as well!

We hope you enjoyed seeing how we made our Perler prayer mat. If you would like to make other prayer mats, please check out
Prayer Rug Felt Magnet {Tutorial}
Prayer Salah Party Prayer Charts {Printable}
Islamic Prayer Mat {Tutorial} Guest Post
Be sure to follow A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see other tutorials that teach about the Arab world & Muslim culture.
