Some ideas and instructions for making your own comfy mattress pad out of items around the home, and some suggestions on fabric types.
Other cloths work just as well for a mattress pad. Flannel, broadcloth or for a cooler pad, cotton. Any fabric which will unravel after cutting needs to be hemmed. The best way to make the pad and hem it too is to place the cloth right sides together and sew around. Start at the bottom of the pad, a few inches from the corner. Sew to the corner, up the side, across the top, down the other side and a few inches on the bottom. This leaves a gap in the bottom panel for turning the pad. For extra cushioning, pin a thin piece of foam onto one side before sewing. After turning the fabric right side out, sew across the bottom. Now tack the pad here and there to hold the pieces of cloth and foam to each other, or quilt it by running seams down the top of the pad. If you'll be quilting, make the pad a few inches larger to allow for shrinkage during the quilting.
A blanket that's just taking up closet space makes a fine mattress cover. Cut it to fit the mattress, then use it alone or cover it with cloth. The cloth can be on only one side, or both, depending upon how you want to make it.
An old quilt can even be a mattress pad. After cutting it to size, hem around the perimeter and place on bed. Or use the quilt as the stuffing for the mattress pad by cutting two pieces of cloth, aligning it with the quilt in the middle, sewing around the perimeter, but leaving a place to turn. After turning and sewing the bottom shut, tack the quilt here and there to keep it from ballooning.
Even very thin material can become a mattress pad. Just stack layer after layer of the fabric until you have the proper thickness, then sew the perimeter. Be sure and tack it at various spots, or quilt it as mentioned before.
To make sure that any mattress pad stays in position, you can buy mattress pad clips which hold the pad in place. The clips are just a piece of wide elastic with a metal or plastic clip on each end. One end is clipped near the corner of the mattress pad, slid under the mattress, then clipped back up to the opposite side of the corner. The clips are placed on each of the four corners of the mattress pad to hold the pad still.
Other suggestions for a mattress pad are used sleeping bags, sheets stuffed with cotton, a thin piece of foam rubber, or curtain panels that have been stacked and sewn together.
