Zippers

Cushions come up as a topic of discussion quite regularly around our shop. Most cushion types can either be closed with a zipper or hand sewn to ensure closure.

The back of a cushion is usually closed with a zipper instead of hand sewing because it is, on the average, about 20 minutes quicker than hand sewing which saves the upholstery craftsman many hours of time when working with several sets daily.

Customers used to assume the zipper was in place to allow the cover to come off for cleaning. Before the use of foam filling, cushions were generously filled with spring and cotton, and the cotton batting would clog up the zipper, preventing ease of operation. As foam became the cushion filling of choice, zippers replaced hand sewing because the smooth foam was not clogging the zippers.

Manufacturers were fielding cushion issues following removal of a cover for cleaning, such as seam separation, color fading, running, and inability to get the filling back in to the cushion. This led to some manufacturers creating a way to prevent the consumer from unzipping the cover, by sewing over the zipper or inserting a staple at the end of the zipper, thus eliminating one cause of consumer complaints.

That is probably more than you ever needed to know about cushions and their contents but I hope we were able to shed some light on some of your upholstery problems