Using some of your fabric stock
 

I make pet blankets for the local animal shelter, about 36 inch square. This uses up a lot of fabric quickly, in case some of you are interested in reducing some of your inexpensive fabric stock and helping out your shelter.

Serita

This is a great idea, but make sure you check with your shelter first. Some shelters won't accept them. Mine will only take towels.

.......... or have specific requirements as to the fabric and batting types.

I guess I am kind of lucky in that regard. My shelter will take anything, but it should be washable. The pet blankets are just a front and back with no batting. So easy and fast to do the job.

The shelter here will take any fabric but they do not wash, once it's really soiled it gets tossed. I save all my fabric bits and fill thrift store pillowcases, sew the end closed and done. Usually I will buy old rugs, blankets, and towels and donate those too. It's an easy and cheap way to give back a little to a good cause.

Shelters here won't take pet beds stuffed with scraps. They take too long to dry and that costs too much $ in electric bills.

Our shelter loves to get towels also. But I was told they do wash the bedding for reuse.

I make pet pads with corduroy one side and tshirt knit or flannel on the other side. I had lots of this left from my clothes sewing days and I sometimes pick some up at yard/estate sales. I use cut up mattress pads, old towels or blankets for the batting. I give these to the rescue organizations that are in the pet stores or any other rescue or non profit animal groups.

I also collect towels when I go to yard/estate sales to give to the shelters and my vet office as these are used quite often by them. It is just one way to give back and help out the local animal organizations.

I made quilts with cutting 4.5" strips and then making a checkerboard. A lot of us quilters save every fabric scraps because the local shelters and rescue groups will take them.

My guild does "dog and cat cuddles" - if you have fabric to get rid of you can donate it to that group and they'll pass it back out to other members who want to sew cuddles for the local shelters, and they also collect up and donate the cuddles when they're done. If/when I ever get some spare time I plan on making a few out of my stash and donating them too. I think they have an info sheet that outlines dimensions & appropriate materials/manufacturing guidelines but I haven't grabbed one yet.

I've never heard of cuddles, but it is great of your guild to coordinate the effort.

Serita

I read somewhere about making dog beds from recycled fabric and then stuffing them with plastic grocery bags. Just pick up and fluff to renew the airiness. One could make a pillow case type cover so it could be washed also. Don't know if the shelters would iike them but I'm thinking about making one for my favorite weiner dog.

My shelter does not accept filled beds, just flannel or fleece blankets. However, I was told if I made beds, and they were well made (not sure what that means) I could sell them in their shop! I attend a quilting class weekly and all the other quilters were giving me their scraps, including fleece, flannel and batting, so I guess I have enough to give it a try.

Would love to have the patterns if you could post them.

Bless you all for helping shelters. :)

I see where Joanns is going to have their muslin on sale June 29 - July 5) for 50 percent off, and then they are doing the military discount of 20 percent off. I hope to get some muslin for the blankets and try to keep the cost down a little.

Serita

Wonderful idea...Thanks...

You could do this same thing with the fabric and donate it to a nursing home, abused women's shelter, hospital or assisted living center. We just had a project for a women's and children's shelter. We did put batting in them, but I think the batting was donated. We had a huge roll of it, and we all used from the roll.

Humans can always use that sort of thing, also.

I just checked the guild's site and they have the sheet posted there. No patterns, just guidelines for what the local shelters/rescue agencies want - hopefully this will be helpful. (Keep in mind, your local shelter/rescue agency's needs may vary!)

Here's the pertinent part of the details:

I kind of wish it listed sizes for dog cuddles too, but then I guess dogs come in all sizes so there's probably not just one size they need.

So true. I am a little pickier about how they look when I donate to the local volunteer organization that distributes to the nursing homes.

I have donated a few small quilts to the Linus Project; I think that focuses mostly on children & teenagers. I don't know of any local programs that are specifically for gathering up quilts for adults & seniors...there should be one!

My DH's grandmother lived in a local nursing home for awhile before she passed away; my FIL still volunteers there. I had him ask if they would like some donated quilts and they said no! No specific reason given, (at least not one that made it back to me) just no thanks. I think that is so weird, but maybe they don't want to be responsible for them or have had bad experiences somehow. Or maybe they won't have enough to go around and don't want any individuals to feel left out? I kind of want to call over and ask them about it myself, out of curiosity if nothing else. (Maybe he asked someone who was in a grumpy mood, or didn't understand the offer?) It's a nice facility overall but those places need all the help they can get to feel cheerful and homey!

Each area animal shelter is different in what they want or can take, with that said all you have to do is call and ask them.
The shelter I give too, will take anything that can be washed. Old towels, blankets, quilts just anything that the dogs and cats can lay-down on. I have taken two old hand towels (or 1 bath towel cut in half), sewn both sides and bottom shut. Then stuffed with cut up t-shirts, towels and scraps. Then sew the end shut. I stuff as full as I can, because cats and small dogs like the nest thing. For the larger animals (mostly dogs, but sometimes small pigs and goats too), I have used an old towel that was stained but still good as the middle of my pet quilt. But most of the time I use POLYESTER (you know from the 60's and 70's - that stuff that NEVER dies and the color never fades), I always have yards around (because someone has cleaned out mom or grandmas house and they used to sew). I take this and use it in place of batting, it doesn't breath so it helps get animals warm. They can dig or chew and it will not hurt it. I have even used it as the backing on blankets not stuffed.
My animal shelter is so HAPPY when they are given any kind of bedding for the animals. Last year when I was cleaning out the house after my mom passed, I was unable to think (it was a hard time). So as I cleaned I packed stuff for my self and other family members, got stuff ready for garage sale and donations. I started with donations (this was the first, the items I didn't want to sell or give to family or friends), they went to the local animal shelter thrift store. The first trip was a truck full (all cleaned and ready to be priced and sold), I went back twice more that first day. The thrift store is used to fund foster homes for animals, low cost animal care of all kinds and it helps keep the kill numbers down in the area. Before it was all said and done, I made 21 trips to the thrift store (small truck not full sized). Between each trip (as I started to feel better, I would sew dog blankets and beds), I was also able to drop them off at the thrift store for the shelter (shelter is out of town). I felt better because of being able to help the animals (and my folks would have liked that), so a hard time was made easier by using my sewing and quilting skills to help the animals. This spring I opened the mail and found a very sweet note from the manager of the thrift store, telling me thank you again for the donations to the store and shelter. I was stunned, but it was nice to know that these items had helped. On adaption days, the shelter send the dogs home with the blanket they had with them. Shelters are always good places to give to.

Please consider "going home" gift pet mats.

My vet is really into pet adoptions. My critters and I were at the vet's and a lady came in bearing a tower of pet mats to go to the local no-kill shelter. They were themed, of all things, around an upcoming holiday and totally adorable. I understand that the lady sewed the mats with whatever fabric she had on hand at the time and sometimes there wasn't a theme and sometimes there was. I hit a themed day. Come to find out, the mats were not used in the shelter. They went home with the adoptees!

If anyone wants to make pet mats and their shelters use other things (towels, etc), the "going home" gift is a thought.

I like critters.

Pat

I received a thank you note from our local shelter too. Very nice. And you are right, they are always very happy when I take the blankets down to them. I was told that the new owners are asked if they want the blanket to take with them.
The last time I talked with the staff, they said they also use the blankets to put down into the boxes that the animals are placed into when they first come in. It is a little softness they can rest on.
A little comfort is how she put it.

Thanks for posting that.

I learned that lesson after a huge bag of a zillion pillows stuffed with fabric scraps was rejected! :(
Thought I was doing something for the environment AND humanity (pets are human, right ? ).

I wish I could luck out onto another liquidation sale...they had bath towels for 25 cents each. They were seconds but new. I donated quite a few of them to the shelter, they were very very happy.

I have donated many to different local shelters-I tell them to just throw them away when they get too dirty. After all they were made with scraps that most would have thrown away in the first place, at least this way the scraps get to be used before being thrown away. I do understand how their washing machines, etc couldn't handle all those scrap beds.

Here is a pic of the pet mats that I make and donate to the rescue groups who do pet adoptions at the pet food stores. This size fits in the bottom of medium and small carriers. For the large dogs, I just bring in bunches of towels to give to the rescue groups. For the shelters, I donate towels, sheets and blankets.

To make the mats, I used tshirt knit on one size, corduroy on the other and old mattress pad, blanket or towel for batting. The mat size is 18" x 20" to 20" x 20". For the cat ones, I sometimes sprinkle a little catnip inside. I use my serger to sew around the mat, leave an opening to turn and then topstitch around the whole mat to close it. I tack stitch in the middle to keep it all together and presto I have pet mats. A quilter donated a large trash bag full of corduroy for my use. Once I run outta tshirt knit, I will peruse the big box remnant bins for discounted fleece to use

Because I unsuccessfully fostered two stray cats (I own them now) I know how expensive it can be to take care of rescue animals so I try to help the rescue groups when I can contribute. I have suggested that they give the pet mats away with adoptions but I see them sometimes in the bottoms of the cages when I am in the pet stores.

I also own two rescue cats, the one in my avatar and my sewing buddy below.

Mats:
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Sewing buddy:
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Love your mats and your sewing buddy. What a sweetheart!

That is an awfully broad statement there. But there are shelters that will accept the stuffed beds. Maybe not in your area. IMHO we all need to be careful of what we state as a fact.

Shelters here won't take pet beds stuffed with scraps. Why should I be "careful" LOL. They take too long to dry and that costs too much $ in electric bills. Fact. NO broad statement. Let me be even more specific...here in N. CA and it just makes economical sense as they take forever to dry.