My thought when I saw your post is that I don't think I'd use the velour blanket. I have a couple older ones around here and there are little chunks of the velour coming off that reveals a sort of nylon webbing in the middle. I'd hate to have you put all that work in and have it get all "chunky" in the middle because of loose bits. If it were me, I'd probably go with the mattress pad. Just my $.02 :wink: