 Hey there, my name is Allison welcome to the tiny herd where we talk about everyday pet care for guinea pigs rabbits and other small pets Today's video is part two in my series on how to make your own DIY fleece liners for your guinea pig cages If you haven't seen the first video, I highly recommend watching that it is about tools and supplies And it explains the breakdown of what each video in this five-part series is going to be Today's video is part two and we are going to be talking all about fleece I'm gonna be explaining to you how fleece liners work What kind of fleece you need to buy and how to buy it at the fabric store? So let's go ahead and just jump right into this video. So first let's talk about how fleece liners work So I do have a very in-depth video talking about fleece and how it works and how to use it properly Which I will leave linked down below But I do want to do a quick overview in this video to explain how it works so that you understand what we're doing when we're making liners So let's talk about how fleece liners actually work when you're making a fleece liner You are actually sewing a absorbent layer in between two pieces of fleece So a lot of people wonder how fleece actually works Does it really keep your pets any drier than using like a cotton sheet or something to that effect? And the answer is yes. The way the fleece works is when it's prepared properly It pulls the liquid through the fleece layer into the central absorbent layer That way the liquid is not sitting on top and making your pet wet or sitting in wet areas So how this works is you prepare the fleece which will be in part five of this series Because that's done after the liners are made but you prepare the fleece so that it is ready to pull the liquid through To that absorbent layer So it's really important when you're using fleece to have all the necessary layers You really do have to have the absorbent layer and you have to have the fleece layer for it to work correctly so I will show you guys a clip of a fleece liner that is properly prepared in a liner that is not and you can see the difference where the liquid goes Right through on the one that is properly prepared and it sits on the top on the one that is not So you can really see in this example how fleece really works It does really pull that liquid through to the absorbent layer and keeps your pet dry If you are brand new to fleece I highly recommend watching my more in-depth video because it also explains how to use fleece properly But using fleece does require daily maintenance You do need to spot clean your cage every single day Which means sweeping up the poops and the hay and then feeling the liners to make sure that they're not getting overly wet because Getty pigs like to use the same areas and those areas will eventually get more wet than the absorbent layer can hold But this is why a lot of us use smaller pads in the high-traffic areas because we can just change those out without changing the entire Liners all right So now that you understand how fleece works and have decided that it's something that you can use and keep up with the Maintenance on let's talk about how to buy the fleece to make your liners This is something I didn't really think about because I'm so used to sewing I've been buying fabric for years But going into a fabric store and buying fabric for the first time can be a little confusing and overwhelming So what I'm gonna do in this video is I'm gonna go buy all the fleece to make my liners I'm gonna take you along with me and exactly break down the process of how to buy your fleece before we do that though Let's really quickly talk about what kind of fleece you actually need to buy So there are multiple kinds of fleece you can find them advertised online for Minky fleece or extra plush or anti-pill or blizzard fleece There's a bunch of different kinds out there But what you want to get for your guinea pig cage liners is anti-pill fleece or blizzard fleece Those are the two that are gonna work the best for you And I also want to mention that if you pay a little bit more and get a little bit nicer quality fleece Your liners are gonna turn out better They're gonna be softer and nicer for your pets and in my experience. They hold up a little bit better I've had a lot of people ask me how I don't have hair and hay stuck in my fleece all the time Part of that is my maintenance and how I clean my cages, but part of that is the quality of the fleece I found that the lower quality fleece tends to hold onto hair and little pieces of hay a lot lot more Than the nicer quality fleece so again Just look for anti-pill or blizzard fleece when you go to the fabric store and you don't necessarily have to go to the fabric store I always go to the fabric store like Joe in or Hobby Lobby or another place like that If you have a local fabric store that has fleece, that's perfectly fine But my local Walmart actually has fleece as well So you can go in and have it cut there So you might start at Walmart if you're looking to buy fleece for your first try making liners All that being said though, we're gonna go to Joanne fabrics today And I'm gonna show you guys how I buy fleece for my cages Basically what you want to do when you get to the store is walk through the store and find the section that has all the different Kinds of fleece in my Joanne It's always along the longest wall in the fabric section of the store so kind of towards the back of the store so you might look there in your own Joanne if you have one Otherwise whatever store you are in whatever fabric store figure out where the fleece section is because that's where you want to be Then you want to find the section within that that has the anti-pill fleece and the blizzard fleece Because those are the two that you really want to choose from from there It's really just determining what print you want figure out what you want to have in your cages what I usually like to do is have a Busy print so you can see here I'm looking at several different options and I end up going with the beef fleece And then what I normally do is when I'm making liners I use a print on both sides of my big liners to be the floor of the cage and then I do choose a solid to be on the back of my smaller pads and my Inside of my cozies so what I would recommend doing if this is your first cage set is finding a Print that you like and find a solid that goes along with it and get that for your very first Set that you are making once you've picked out the fleece that you want What you do is take the entire bolt that you found off of the wall and put it in your cart Because you have to have this cut before you can buy it So this is what can be intimidating if you've never bought fabric before you might not know how to do this So we're gonna go ahead and do it. I got the fleece that I wanted I filled my cart with everything that I needed and then you find the central location Usually in the store where they will cut your yardage for you So you do need to know how much you're going to need and for our purposes This is gonna depend on what size cage you have and what all you're planning on making for my cage sets I bought five yards each of the beef fleece The fish fleece and then I bought three yards of the solid blue since it's just going to be for smaller pads and beds So the five yards is going to be used for the actual liners themselves and The outside of all of the cozies and the good side of the smaller pads if that makes sense I have in my e-book and I will put in the description box a little guide on buying on what I would personally buy For making different size of cage sets So at this point you just give the bolts to the employee and tell them how much you want and they will cut your yardage for you And then they will give you a little receipt that you take up to the cash register with you in order to purchase your fleece So once you have all your fleece cut Then you can just take that ticket that they give you with you up to the cash register to pay Or you can continue shopping if you need a bunch of other sewing supplies Go ahead and get everything that you need and then you can pay for everything at the register using that little ticket But that is all there is to buying fleece It can be a little overwhelming if you've never bought fabric in a fabric store before but that is really all there is to it So now you can go in and get what you need and be ready to sew your liners All right guys one other important thing that we need to discuss in this video is your absorbent layer So this is important because it has to go in the center of your fleece liner And it's really where all the liquid is going to be held So you want something that you can sew through but is also going to be super absorbent So the most popular choice in the United States is U-Haul furniture pads. These are really inexpensive I think they're seven or eight dollars a piece and you can get a couple of liners out of each one You can get these at the U-Haul store or you can order them online and they will ship them to you But if you live outside the United States or you have trouble getting a hold of the U-Haul pads There are some other options that you can use So a lot of people do use towels as their absorbent layer, especially if they're not using liners This works just fine. But if you're using them in liners, I would recommend probably doubling up on the layers So putting two towels in one liner just to make sure it's absorbent enough to last you in between cage Cleans other things you can use are baby mattress pads or crib pads because again These are meant to be absorbent for babies or toddlers or really anything that you can think of or find that is Easily sewed through you can cut it to size and it will be super absorbent in your cage liners This was something I get asked about a lot is what you can use as your absorbent layer So there's some options for you guys if you live outside the US or even if you just have an option that you Think works just as well or better than U-Haul pads Please leave it down in the comments below so other people can learn from that as well Just because I don't have as much experience with other options since I have U-Haul pretty easily accessible to me So that's what you need to know about the absorbent layer that goes inside your liners Just make sure that whatever you end up purchasing you make sure to calculate How much you're gonna need to go in your entire cage set. Alright guys, so we have all of our flee spot So I'm gonna end this video here today. So thank you guys so much for watching I hope you enjoyed part two of this flee series and found it helpful Leave any questions or comments you have down below and I will get back to you as soon as I can The next video is going to be all about cutting out your liners So we are moving along in this process if you did enjoy this video and you find it helpful Please give it a like because that does really help my channel out and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already So you don't miss the rest of the series But thank you guys again so much for watching and I will see you in the next one. Bye