My take on the DIY Morrocan Wedding Blanket....

 

Have you seen these gorgeous Moroccan Wedding Blankets?

 

I've loved them since forever. Now, of course they're all over Pinterest and eBay, and never available for much less than $600. Okay, so I love them, but not enough to spend $600 on one. I'd rather a nice pair of shoes or two...lol!

 

So I fished out this IKEA blanket that I've had for years. It's sort of a Berber look thing anyway, and completely plain except for that self check in the fabric.

 

Having seen Annabels beautiful crocheted Faux Moroccan blanket over at The Bluebirds are Nesting, I just knew I could produce something that was close. Unfortunately I do not have the patience or Annabels skill, so crochet was out of the question. Or a least a whole crocheted blanket was!

 

I finally decided that the Blanket above at the top of my post, and the one at the bottom of this post, were my favourites. I love the slim shaggy trim, interspersed with lots of sequins, over some of the other variations I've seen, so here I am.

 

Now the shaggy trim, I decided I would crochet, having sourced some of that shaggy yarn for a scarf project for The Diva. I chose a soft, cream-bordering-on-ballet-pink. You know me. I'm mad for pink. Especially that pink of satin ballet shoes.

 

Then I simply crocheted one long strand of chain, and then crocheted double chain into that, to form the fringe. This I am stitching in rows, across my blanket. I decided that looked better on my bed, than the usual horizontal rows on proper Moroccan Wedding Blankets.

 

I then chose a range of pastel sequins, some round ballet pink ones, larger round mother of pearl ones, oval shaped lavender ones and some crystals, and these I am laboriously stitching to my blanket one by one. It's tedious, but I set myself a target once a week and spend an hour or so on it. I can't do any more than that as the blanket is so huge, it has to stay on the bed, and I have to stand over it, or kneel on the floor to stitch each individual sequin.

 

I'm really happy with the way it's coming along though, and it's looking very much how I intended. I want it much more heavily sequinned than this though, so it's going to be a labour of love over several months if not a year, I think.

As you can see by this bottom picture, I have a long way to go!

 

I think it will be a project of which I'll be very proud in the end though.

 

It's not usually in my nature to persevere with large projects, but I love the idea of this blanket here, so much, that I think I can do it this time. It's amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it!

 

It also goes to show that in creating something unique, it pays to build upon your existing skills. Annabels blanket is crocheted with lavish trims. Mine is embellishing an existing blanket with thousands of hand applied sequins and crocheted shaggy fringe.

 

Here are some other ways you could recreate your own Moroccan Wedding Blanket:

 

Made a bed scarf out of sequinned and beaded tulle and lay it across a simple neutral bed cover.

 

Change it up and add lace, frills, ribbon or braid as you preferences dictate. Don't get locked in to what you think it 'should' be.

 

Use an ivory coloured sheet as a base cover, and layer it with an Antique lace bedspread or tablecloth, and some sequinned scatter cushions for a similar look without all the hard work.

 

Applique` vintage doilies and upholsterers fringe across a cream vintage blanket.

 

To preserve the 'wedding' idea, make a coverlet from recycled wedding dresses. The thrift stores have these for ridiculous prices and it's the best way to get lots of gorgeous fabric for a project as big as this. Re-use any lace, beaded trim, or brocade, in the embellishing of your blanket.

 

And accept, that this will NOT be an overnight project!

 

What have you spent, months or perhaps years on to finish?

 

...Mimi...