You can buy batting by the yard, in several thicknesses. Do you have a Hancocks, a Joanne's, or quilting store nearby? Your thinking is correct - batting will be soft, lightweight, and warm. Fleece is another possibility, but you would need layers.

I have never seen it by the yard, just in whole quilt sizes. I have a Jo Ann nearby: I will have to ask. Does batting have fabric on either side, or just the fiberfill?

I believe you can get "iron on" batting, but have never seen with fabric. That would kinda defeat the purpose of making quilt tops. Yes, call your JoAnnes store . I think I know the type cat bed you are making, so the batting rolled would have stability for the sides and softness as well. This is what I plan on doing to give my cats an extra bed.

You can also get a crib size batt - that may be just the right amount you would need.

Some batting has a scrim, which is similar to a very thin layer of fabric.

Donna

Go to a thrift store and buy a fleece throw or mattress pad.

I thought if it had a thin fabric on either side, like mattress pads do, it would be easier to handle and fit in. On the one I made already, the sides stayed stable and didn't crush down, even though they project above the rim of the basket (to keep the cat from chewing on the rattan).

I thought of a thrift store, but then I'd want to boil whatever I found before using it ;) I know it's illegal to resell mattresses, the same might go for mattress pads.

If not a second hand mattress pad, how about a second hand comforter? I see those in the thrift stores all the time - & crib sized ones as well.

I use fleece when I can find it on sale or clearance. Sometimes (often) it is cheaper than the batting, and if it is INSIDE the quilt, it doesn't matter if it is the pilling sort - and the pilling sort is the cheapest sort. Hancock fabric has had all their fleece on sale for 70% off this weekend, I'm not sure but I THINK that sale is still on tomorrow (Sunday) and perhaps a bit longer.

Cats already have fur, they don't need a whole lot of warmth, though honestly I don't think there's much difference in warmth from using fleece vs batting of roughly the same thickness. Any middlin' good fleece works well for me though I do avoid the cheapest stuff.

My grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great grandmother always used a thinner batting for their quilts than what seems to be par for the course today anyway. I think most of us would, too, given they were doing this all by hand and the thicker the batting, the harder to get the needle through there. In their day, if one quilt wasn't enough (and it generally wasn't, for most of their lives, living without central heat or sometimes any heat at all other than the kitchen stove) then you just layered more quilts on the bed at night.

If the fleece is attractive enough, and is non-pilling, I have, on occasion, made it do double duty as "batting" replacement AND as the quilt back. When I do that I try to find an attractive color that contrasts well with both sides of the quilt (so you can see the quilting from either side).

If I'm going to do all that looping about, I want people to be able to see and (hopefully) admire it!

I was scrounging around at Jo Ann trying to find sale fleece
for other small projects when I bought the “good” full price fleece for this
one. I was surprised that even the remnants were almost full price. Maybe it is
too popular at this time of year to go on sale.

Most of the fleece at Jo Ann is poor quality to begin with:
it might look nice but it is not warm at all. I bought some very pretty stuff
last year to make hats and scarves to go with a few new coats. After making 3
hats, I was dismayed, after all that work, to find that they are not warm at
all. Like the fleece was made out of plastic or something. It has a slick
feeling, not fluffy.

I don’t know where there might be a good fabric store
near me. I only know of one in a town about 20 miles away