CLOSURE-ARRANGEMENTS FOR LOOSE-COVERS

Abstract: A closure-arrangement for loose-covers used on furniture, as shown in the Figure, takes the form of an overlapping joint between abutting edges (3 and 4) of adjacent first and second panels (1 and 2), which between them form a slit-aperture (5) in the loose-cover. The panel edges (6 and 9) are attached to first and second extension flaps (7 and 10), which run along edges (6 and 9), and extending toward and beyond the other, abutting panel-edge. The first extension-flap (7) is adapted to underlie the panel edge (4) and is provided with one part (8) of a hook-and-loop fastener material. The second extension flap (10) is partially formed of stiffener material (11) and is further provided with the other part (14) of the hook-and-loop fastener. When stiffened second flap (10) overlies the first panel edge (3) it also faces outwards, thus away from the underlying first panel. During closure the panel (10) is folded back under the second panel-edge (4), to which it is attached, thereby bringing the two parts of the hook-and-loop fastener into conjunction, and thus enabling the two parts of the fastener to be united.

Description: CLOSURE-ARRANGEMENTS FOR LOOSE-COVERS This invention concerns closure-arrangements for loose-covers. There is nothing to beat the appearance of well-upholstered furniture, e.g. armchairs, settees and so on, but with the passage of time the upholstery-fabric tends to fade, and indeed to become dirty with use, so usually such upholstered furniture is provided with a so-called loose-cover, to protect the underiying upholstery, but which can be readily removed for intermittent cleaning. Such loose-covers may be and indeed often are made of very superior furnishing fabrics by excellent craftsmanship - and yet they are recognisably loose-covers, not upholstery proper, and to that extent seem to command less respect. The problem lies in the inescapable basic requirement that a loose- cover by its very nature must have in it somewhere a slit-aperture which can be opened up to enable the loose-cover to be readily removed from the underlying furniture for cleaning, but afterwards can be closed up again when the cleaned loose-cover has been fitted back onto the furniture. It has always seemed essentially impossible to conceal the existence of such a slit-aperture from the percipient eye. Now however I have devised a closure-arrangement for loose-covers which (provided of course that it is competently made) will so disguise the existence of the slit-aperture that even a well-experienced eye will scarcely be able to detect its location or indeed its existence, and may indeed well be deceived into the belief that it is viewing upholstery proper rather than a loose-cover. According to this invention there is provided a closure-arrangement for a loose-cover in the form of-joint between abutting edges of adjacent first and second panels of furnishing fabric, said abutting edges between them defining a loose-cover slit aperture, and said panel edges being respectively attached to first and second extension flaps each of them running therealong and extending towards the other abutting panel-edge, the first extension-flap along the first panel-edge being adapted to underlie the second panel edge and provided with the first part of a two-part hook-and-loop fastener material facing outwards, and thus towards the overlying second panel, while the second extension flap along the second panel-edge is at least partly formed of stiffener material and is provided with the second part of said two part hook-and-loop fastener, which when the thus-stiffened second flap overlies the first panel edge also faces outwards thus away from the underlying first panel, but which to effect closure of the slit-aperture is folded back under the second panel to which it is attached, thereby bringing the second part of the hook-and-loop fastener into face-to-face abutment with the first part thereof provided on the underlying first extension flap, thus enabling the two parts of the fastener to be united. The hook-and-loop fastener material is nowadays an entirely standard, commercially-available product, sold for instance under the trade names "Velcro" (RTM) and "CricCrac". It is most preferable that the first extension flap is, like the second extension flap, at least partially formed of stiffener material. The slit-aperture will necessarily be linear, but it need not, and indeed usually will not, be rectilinear. The location and. size of the slit-aperture in the loose-cover is not the concern of this invention, provided only that it is adequately sized and appropriately located so as to enable the loose-cover in question to be removed from and re-fitted to the piece of furniture which is to be provided with the loose-cover. It will however normally be located around the back of the piece of furniture, and run in a generally-vertical direction. Indeed, if only by convention, the slit-aperture in the loose-cover for an armchair or settee is normally arranged to run up the right-hand rear corner of the piece, and in the case of any kind of curved-back chair or settee this will be also curved correspondingly. The stiffened second flap can be shaped to conform exactly with the curve in the underlying furniture, and will hold that shape irrespective of small variations in the tension upon the loose-cover panels resulting from people sitting in the furniture or other causes. The stiffened second flap may be stiffened by inclusion of a stiffener, which must be formed of a material adequately resistant to washing or dry- cleaning. There are several non-woven plastics stiffener materials commercially-available in the UK at present which fulfil these requirements, e.g. that sold under the trade name "Vylene". The stiffener will desirably be encased within a sleeve, and indeed preferably a sleeve formed of the same furnishing fabric as the loose-cover proper. In accordance with normal procedures the sleeve will normally be made from segments of fabric, disposed face-to-face with each other, and stitched together along opposite edges, then turned inside out to yield the finished sleeve, within which the stiffener can then be inserted and secured in place therewithin, usually again by stitching. The respective parts of the two-part hook-and-loop fastener material may be secured onto the respective first and second extension flaps in any convenient way, but again usually by stitching. The hook-and-loop fastener material will normally be in strip form and the edges of the respective parts of the fastener strip as secured to the respective extension flaps should in each case be positioned as closely as reasonably possible along and adjacent to the panel-edge to which that extension flap is attached. Because it adds both to the strength and the appearance of the loose- cover when fitted to the furniture, it is usually advantageous if piping is provided along the edge of any of the panels. In preference, however, the piping is provided on the edge of the underlying panel. The piece of furniture will sometimes be provided with a valance. So long as there is to be no separate valance mounted direct upon the piece, but whether or not there is such a valance on the loose-cover itself, it is advantageous to provide a downwardly-extending tab at or closely adjacent to an end of the overlying panel (and within any valance provided on the loose- cover) so that tab may be turned under and secured to the underneath of the piece of furniture. This assists positively to hold the bottom corner of that panel and thus of the underlying panel overlapped thereby very firmly in position against any likely stresses resulting from use of the furniture, thereby preventing the slit-aperture revealing its existence by gaping open. Attachment of the tab to the underneath of the piece may be achieved in any convenient but detachable manner, e.g. by means of one or more press- studs. It seems however generally most convenient to attach the tab to the underneath of the piece of furniture by means of two-part hook-and-loop fastener material, one part of which is stitched or otherwise secured onto the inwardly-facing side of the dependent tab while the other half is appropriately secured to the sub-frame or some other underside portion of the furniture. In order that the invention may be well understood it will now be described in more detail, though only by way of illustration, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a merely perspective view of the edges of two panels of furnishing fabric (widely separated, and in some respects exaggerated in scale, so as to facilitate understanding) separated by a slit-aperture but provided along those edges with a closure-arrangement in accordance with this invention for closing up the slit-aperture; Figure 2 is a similar view of the same closure arrangement, now however disposed ready for closure of the slit-aperture to be effected; and Figure 3 is again a similar view of the same closure-arrangement after it has been closed-up. Referring first to Figure 1 , it will be seen that two adjacent panels respectively 1 and 2 of a loose-cover made of furnishing fabric have vertical edges, respectively 3 and 4 between which there is a slit-aperture 5. Along the edge 6 of the first panel 1 there is arranged a flap 7 and on that flap 7 there is arranged a first part 8 of a two part hook-and-loop fastener material, additionally along edge 6, there runs some piping 13. Along the edge 9 of the second panel 2 there is also arranged another, stiffened flap generally indicated 10. The stiffened flap 10 is however of composite construction, comprising a sheet of 'Vylene' stiffener 11 sheathed within sleeve 12 made of furnishing fabric. The sleeve 12 is secured to the edge 9 of the second panel 2. On the outer face (as shown in Figure 1 ) of the sleeve 12 there is arranged the second part 14 of the previously-mentioned two part hook-and- loop fastener. And at the bottom corner of panel 2 there is provided a depending tab 15. When the slit-aperture 5 is to be closed up, then as shown in Figure 2 the sleeve 12 is turned back through 180°, so that it lies against the inside of panel 2 with its second part 14 of the hook-and-loop material now facing inwardly, and thus toward the first part 8 of the hook-and-loop material mounted on the flap 7 secured along the edge of panel 1. Then the now-facing parts 8 and 14 of the hook-and-loop material are pressed together and thus united, as shown in Figure 3, achieving a very neat and virtually imperceptible closure of the slit-aperture 5, and the more surely to maintain the closure thus effected, the tab 15 (depending in Figure 2) is tucked under the piece of furniture and there secured.

Claims: - 1 - CLAIMS 1. A closure-arrangement for a loose-cover in the form of a joint between abutting edges of adjacent first and second panels of furnishing fabric, said abutting edges between them defining a loose-cover slit-aperture, and said panel edges being respectively attached to first and second extension flaps each of them running therealong and extending towards the other abutting panel-edge, the first extension-flap along the first panel-edge being adapted to underlie the second panel edge and provided with the first part of a two-part hook-and-loop fastener material facing outwards, and thus towards the overlying second panel, while the second extension flap along the second panel-edge is at least partly formed of stiffener material and is provided with the second part of said two part hook-and-loop fastener, which when the thus-stiffened second flap overlies the first panel edge also faces outwards thus away from the underlying first panel, but which to effect closure of the slit-aperture is folded back under the second panel-edge to which it is attached, thereby bringing the second part of the hook-and-loop fastener into face-to-face abutment with the first part thereof provided on the underlying first extension flap, thus enabling the two parts of the fastener to be united. 2. A closure-arrangement as claimed in claim 1 , for use with a loose cover having front, sides and a rear, in which the slit-aperture is located around the rear of the loose-cover. 3. A closure-arrangement as claimed in claim 2, in which the slit-aperture is arranged to run up one of the edges formed between the sides and rear of said loose-cover. 4. A closure-arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims, in which the second flap is stiffened by using a stiffener formed of a non-woven, plastics material. 5. A closure-arrangement as claimed in claim 4, in which the stiffener is encased within a sleeve. 6. A closure-arrangement as claimed in claim 5, in which the sleeve is made from the same furnishing fabric as the loose-cover. 7. A closure-arrangement as claimed in claim 5 or claim 6, in which the sleeve is made from segments of fabric disposed face-to-face with each other and stitched together along each of a pair of opposite edges, then turned inside out to form a sleeve able to accommodate the stiffener, which is inserted therein and stitched through fabric and stiffener to hold the latter in place. 8. A closure-arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims in which the two-part hook-and-loop fastener material takes the form of a strip, and the respective parts of this fastener strip are secured to the respective extension flaps along and closely-adjacent to the panel-edge to which edge such extension flap is attached. 9. A closure-arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims, in which piping is provided along the edge of the overlying panel. 10. A closure-arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims, which also incorporates a downwardly-extending tab at or closely-adjacent to one end of the overlying panel, so that tab can be turned under and secured to the underneath of the piece of furniture to which the loose-cover is fitted. 11. A loose-cover having a slit-aperture therein and a closure-arrangement for said slit-aperture as claimed in any of the preceding claims.

Inventors: BLACK CRAIG VINCENT, BLACK, CRAIG, VINCENT
Applicants: BLACK CRAIG VINCENT, BLACK, CRAIG, VINCENT
Application year: 1998
Main classification: A47C31
IPC codes: A47C31