Different Types of Polyester Wraps around a Foam Core

The most basic cushion construction is a foam core with a polyester wrap. The foam provides the support and lines up with the seams in the depth, width and boxing of the cushion. Foam is cut with a straight blade and is perfectly flat on all sides. It is difficult to have a cover be tight and wrinkle-free on a flat surface. To aid in the fit and to soften the appearance of the foam, we wrap it with polyester (and down/feather, but that is for another entry). The polyester pushes out against the cover which tightens it and eliminates wrinkles. Below is a discussion of two types of polyester wrap.

High Density foam w/ Dacron wrap, muslin tick

With use, all foam gets softer and all polyester flattens. High Density foam, which is available in five levels of firmness, resists softening the best. The best option for wrapping the foam is with Dacron. It's springy fiber stays fluffy and resists flattening best out of all the polyester battings. To hold everything in place we make a muslin lined jacket out of the Dacron and the foam core fits inside. The jacket is closed with a zipper at the back.

High Density Foam w/ bonded wrap, glued, no lining

Bonded polyester is the easiest, quickest batting to work with. It is cut to size and glued to the surface of the foam. Bonded polyester has the least amount of resiliency and will flatten the quickest. We have 4 different weights (thicknesses) of bonded polyester to choose from: 1/2 oz. , 3/4 oz., & 1 1/4 oz.

Back Cushion Rejuvenation

Most furniture ships with back cushions filled with either polyester or a down/feather blend and sometimes with down/feather blended with polyester.  With normal use the polyester filled inserts will start to show wear and begin to sag.

We were recently brought some sagging fiber/down filled backs.  Fiber/down is the filling that blends down/feather with polyester.  Although down/feather on it's own is fluffable, once it's blended with polyester it gets tangled in the poly fibers and as the batting wads up and flattens, so too does the down/feather.  These cushions had lost their fullness, were drooping severely and provided no support (the picture below says it all) for their owners.

We emptied the backs of the fiber/down filling, as you can see it comes out in ropey bands of wadded up polyester and feathers.

After emptying the tick, we refilled it with Cluster Fiber, making the insert very firm, supportive and full.

Lots of Cluster Fiber filled into the existing tick makes the insert much fuller and firmer than before.

The new cushion is dramatically fuller than the old cushion.

By the way, we never mix down/feather with polyester.  Either we make a polyester filled cushion which is firm, or a down/feather cushion which is fluffable, or a foam core poly

Jay Nelson's Tree House

We're very excited to see this article in the SF Chronicle about Jay Nelson's latest tree house.  Not only is the house original and cool, we got to contribute to it as well by making the cushion inserts for the benches.  The covers were expertly made by Catlin Weatherill, who tailored all the unique angles that were part of Jay's design.  We would love to hang out in this tree house and listen to Peter Rabbit on the phonograph all day.

100% Natural Latex Foam

We are now carrying bouncy, heavy, anti-microbial, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified, flame retardant free 100% Natural Latex Foam.  It's available in 30" x 80" sheets, 3", 4" and 5" thick.  We can also cut and glue it to size.  Call or email us with your dimensions.

The holes are the result of the pins that are part of the mold that is used to make the finished product.

The Latex carries the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 label (this one was checked by Shirley)

IN STOCK: Fire Retardant Free Foam

Update June 2015 - Fire Retardant Polyurethane foam is now available!

In the near future we will be able to offer our customers foam that is free of fire retardant (FR).  If you would like to be contacted when the FR free foam is available please send us an email.  If you would like pricing, send us the measurements of your cushion cover's (see diagram below) depth, width and boxing. We will get back to you with pricing and information about the types of foam that will be available.

Stuffing a Cushion Cover

Little House - Long Cushions

The Metropolitan Museum of Art regularly posts short audio/visual tours from their collection and this one on Frank Lloyd Wright's living room of the Little House features a few views of a pair of wonderfully long, long window seats bookended by perfectly proportioned bolsters.

These pictures make a strong case for making one long cushion for a window or bench seat instead of breaking the space up with 2 or 3 (or more!) cushions.  

It's graphically bold and comes with the added benefit of allowing the user to lie anywhere they want without encountering a break from one cushion to the next. 

An interesting choice was made to have the cushions come up short in width to allow the bolster to rest inside the space between the cushion and the wall.  

Fun Window Seat with Pillows by Ida Lauren Designs

The covers for this beautiful window seat were sewn by Lauren of Ida Lauren Designs.  Cushion Works made the cushion and pillow forms that are inside of the covers.

Construction Notes:  

The pillow covers have a strong graphic pattern and were cut straight to allow for Lauren's great pattern matching at the seams.  

The seat cushion's thickness was sized to fit snugly underneath the window trims.  We used a firm foam core with a polyester wrap on top and bottom which makes the cushion reversible.

How To Measure a Cushion - Depth, Width & Boxing

Depth - measurement from front to back

Width - measurement from side to side

Boxing - dimension of panel when measured from seam to seam

Wool Seat Cushions

Sometimes we are asked to manufacture a seat cushion that utilizes more “natural” materials which means no foam and no fire retardants.  Finding the right materials is a challenge given the strict fire code regulations we are required to follow in California.

Cotton is not an option because without a fire retardant treatment it is flammable.  Down and feather, although naturally fire dampening, is much too soft for most people when used as the sole component of a seat cushion.  100% natural latex does not meet California fire codes.

Spring unit and a roll of wool batting.

Wool however is both naturally fire dampening and can also provide good support in a seat cushion.  We construct our wool cushions two ways. We use either a spring core that is wrapped with wool batting or we can make a solid wool cushion.  Either construction is very full and round.  You can see in the pictures the relative distance between the boxing measurment on the cover and the much higher crown in the middle.

We will wrap the spring unit with several layers of wool. 

Spring/Wool or Solid Wool cushions have a very high crown. 

In the spring core / wool wrapped cushion, we build a spring unit and then wrap it with wool batting until we have buried the edginess of the spings.  Springs are available in in different guages which can be soft, medium or firm.

Solid Wool Cushion

Also, wool on it’s own can be layered to make a firm, fluffy cushion.

New Foam Cushions

Switching out the old foam cushions for new ones always makes a difference.  The job pictured above was for a customer’s 20 year old sofa.  The cushions were flat, the covers loose and they were too soft to sit on comfortably.  Since he has teenage twins who love playing video games on this the primary sofa in the house, he needed to firm the seats up.  We measured the covers and as you can see from the picture, they were designed to contain a much thicker cushion than what they had become.  We fit the cushions with a firm High Resiliency foam that was wrapped with bonded polyester.  As you can see in these photos, the difference is dramatic.  

By the way, these cushions were High Resiliecy (HR ) foam, density 2.5lb, ILD 45, cut 24” x 24” x 5 1/2” thick with a bonded polyester wrap.

Send us an email if you need help with your project.

The Boxing Panel

The measurement of the boxing panel of a seat or back cushion is crucial in determining the thickness of foam that we will use.  Our approach is to use a thickness of foam that is the same dimension as the height of the boxing, i.e. 3" boxing on the cover gets a 3" thick foam core.  The foam is the firmest part of the cushion and we want the edge of the foam to line up with the seams of the cover and hold them straight.  The material that is wrapped around the foam, whether it be polyester, down/feather or wool, just adds to the total thickness of the cushion, which we call the "crown".

Poly / Down Seat Cushion

By Poly / Down we mean a seat cushion with a foam core that is inside a down/feather filled envelope (or jacket).  Old timers refer to polyurethane foam as "poly" and "down" refers to a down and feather blend.  Some common blends for cushions are 10% down/90% feather, 25% down/75% feather (pictured below) and 50% down/50% feather.

We used the original cover (at the top left) as a pattern for cutting the foam.
The finished boxing on the cover is 4" so we used a 4" thick High Resiliency
foam core.  The thickness of the foam is the same as the finished boxing
so that the edges of the foam to line up with the seams of
the cover to hold them straight and tight.

Our down & feather filled jacket is cut a little larger than the finished size
of the cover.  It also includes a crown allowance which allows finished
cushion to be very full and round.  We also sew partitions into the ticking.
This keeps the down/feather in separate channels which helps
the customer to maintain the cushion.  It also allows for the high
crown that is indicative of this type of construction.

A zipper at the back of the cushion makes it easy to access the foam core
for maintenance.

The foam core is inserted into the envelope.

Zipped up.

This cushion has a crown of about 8".  The foam is 4" thick.

The finished cushion ready to be covered.

Knife Edge Pillows - Crown Allowance vs Straight Cut

Before you order your pillow forms, check your cover or with your sewing workroom to see if you covers are cut with a Crown Allowance or are Straight Cut. We make our pillows to order and can accommodate either approach.  Unless we are told otherwise, all of our pillows are cut with a crown allowance (or bow).

Crown Allowance: When a pillow is cut this way is filled, the sides tend to be straighter. 

Straight Cut: When a pillow is cut this way the sides pull in when filled and
the corners become sharper, what we call "dog ears".  

Foam Puzzle Back Cushion

A stack of random foam?

Sort by shape.

Assemble

Glue pieces together

Wrap with polyester, line with muslin.

This project required a profile with a curve on the top front of the cushion with 90 degree angles on the back and bottom.  We broke down the finished shape into easy to cut pieces that we later assembled.

The Making of a Bench Cushion

This bench cushion has a long cut out in the middle.  We first mark the foam and then cut with the foam saw.

 All foam is cut with perfectly flat sides.  It is difficult to get a cover to be tight on a flat surface, so we wrap the foam with either a polyester or a down/feather envelope to help tighten the top and bottom panels of the cover.  For this cushion we are gluing the bonded polyester to the foam.

The polyester is cut to the same shape as the foam.  On this cushion, it sits on the  top and bottom of the foam core only.  We left the edges free of polyester because we want the cover to have a flat front. 

The foam in these photos is 2 1/2" thick and will be covered with a cover that has a finished boxing panel of 2 1/2" too.  The edges of the foam will hold the piping on the cover straight while the polyester will push up against the top and bottom panels, creating a crown and making the cover look tight and fit.

Recipe for Wedge Shaped Foam

Start with 1 block of foam.

Slice at desired angle.

Separate!

The angled cut always yields 2 wedges.

Note: If you need only 1 wedge shape, we cut the wedge from a block that is half as wide as your finished product. Then we glue the cut pieces side to side to create a shape that is the full width. For example, if we need one wedge that is 36" wide, we cut the shapes from a block that is 18" wide and then glue the two 18" pieces together to make 36".

Persian Ottomans and Foam Interiors

We often see customer's who have returned from a trip to North Africa or the Middle East with beautiful, but empty, ottoman covers. Usually the opening runs across the diameter which means that the best filling material is by hand with either cotton or wool. Recently a customer brought in these ottoman covers that she purchased in Iran.

They were made with a zipper at the bottom that went around the circumference (see below). This allowed us to insert firm pieces of foam cut to make the covers tight and the structure stable. By using foam instead of cotton or wool, the result was stronger and a more even in shape. The dozens of stripes around the side looked vibrant and neat.

This ottoman was the show stopper. The racetrack shape framed the colorful design and made for a unique shape that was the most comfortable of all.