We report on specific heat and magnetic properties of thin Gd sheets obtained by means of a cold rolling technique. At temperatures well below Curie temperature T_C, the cold rolling has a minor impact on the specific heat C_p. However, a well defined λ-type anomaly of C_p seen in the vicinity of T_C in a polycrystalline Gd sample is markedly suppressed in the severely deformed samples. Depression of the λ peak is due to a large decrease of magnetization that presumably originates in a local magnetic anisotropy induced by the severe plastic deformation. Results of calculation of magnetocaloric effect from the C_p and magnetization data indicate that the magnetocaloric effect gradually decreases as the degree of plastic deformation increases. This trend is further confirmed by the direct measurements of the adiabatic temperature change ΔT_ad.