DIY Serged Cat Security Blankets for Shelter Cats

We just completed our 5th Annual Craft for Shelters event and I wanted to do a special post on these cat blankets because they are so easy to make and such a cool concept!  Sebastian is posing with our finished stack we donated to Seattle Animal Shelter.

They are fairly small in size so you can make quite a few from just a few yards of fabric.  You can do a single layer of fleece, a double layer of flannel/other soft materials, or a cute printed quilting cotton with a fleece back.  And if you have access to a serger, you can just edge-stitch the blankets!

Rounded corners are faster to serge in my opinion, but nothing wrong with squared blankets either!  Grab a plate or any round object to trace your rounded corners with and then cut it out.

Set your serger for a 3-thread overlock narrow stitch and put it on a short length (between 1 and 2).  It's simple and effective.  We also did some with variegated thread and those turned out very cool!

That's all there is to it.  It's a 10 minute project!  We tried to get a photo of one of the shelter cats with our blankets and it's definitely not easy to make them pose.  Sebastian says I shouldn't be so surprised, ha!

Here's what the shelter coordinator said about how they utilize these blankets: 

"These are very special blankets… they will carry the cat’s scent with them to the new home and while they are in the shelter as their bedding is rotated and all other scents around them are replaced, the blankets will stay untouched. Think of them as distressing blankets more than for warmth… kitties will have other bedding for this purpose."

15"X15" was their requested size, but seems to me like the blankets can be a variety of sizes.  Or how about larger ones for the dogs.  Contact your local shelters and ask them what they need!  I also found this link online to the Snuggles Project, which is another great organization encouraging people to make blankets for shelters.

Additional resources we've found for blankets:

Comfort for Critters

The Snuggles Project

Annies Blankets

XOXOXOXO,

Erika and Sebastian