Advice needed!

[to-my-wife.livejournal.com]

Hi guys,

This is my first post here, although I've been enjoying looking at everyone's craftiness over the last few weeks!

I need some advice. I'm planning on making a huge cushion for my close friend's birthday, in March. She's a big fan of Katamari Damacy so it's going to have a Katamari theme.





I've drawn out a scale plan on tissue paper:



I'm going to applique felt and other fabrics onto a fabric background, using brightly-coloured thread. It's going to be a cover for this cushion from IKEA. The finished product should look pretty bold as it's going to be 72cm square!

I thought I wanted to use black fleece as that would be cosy and comfy but I'm worried that bits of fluff will get stuck to it and it'll always be messy-looking. Also, fleece is kind of expensive online (and there aren't any shops near me that sell it) - I've checked out this fleece on eBay but it'll cost about £12.50 delivered for two (albeit big) pieces, and I'm on a budget (and the cushion itself is £10). I was in a crappy bed linen shop near my flat earlier today and found cheap fleece blankets for £2.95 each, but the material seemed pretty cheap and nasty. Do you think the eBay stuff will be nicer quality given the higher price? I don't know much about different 'grades' of fleece, if such things exist.

Or can anyone think of a soft cosy fabric that might be better than fleece? It has to be black I think to make the applique stand out, and to match the border of the quilt I made for her last year:



Thanks so much for your help everyone! :o)

EDIT: Thanks to k8muggle I have decided to order one piece of the 'expensive' fleece from the eBay seller. I've already cut the katamari pieces and the prince out of fabric and can't wait to get started sewing them on!

Thanks for everyone's interest and help.