How are sofas made?

Making a sofa bed is a long process that can take between 300 to 600 hours just to create a single sofa. sofas are usually made with the method we will show you below. both machinery and manpower are needed to create sofa beds due to machinery being so good it was speed up the process of creating a sofa compared to in the past.

The process of creating a sofa:

• Framing
• Webbing and springs
• Padding
• Fabric
• Finishing

Framing

The first thing to do when making a sofa is to construct the frame from wood that doesn’t have any defects. the frame that is constructed needs to be strong

Webbing and springs

Now that you have a frame for your sofa you can now start the webbing of the sofa frame. First, you get the material that you want to use as webbing this is usually jute a kind of burlap that is made in India. the material is used to be interwoven, stretched and then tacked into the frame all across the sofa frame. when this is done the webbing will be done.

Now that the webbing is complete, the springs are ready to be attached using flax twine. this is done by using two lines of flax twine that are first tacked into place and then tied to the spring starting from the back to the front. each row of springs will have a line of flax lines running side to side. this is done until each spring is securely attached into position and if the springs are heavy gauged then these will need to tie down with an additional piece of wire.

the back is then further tacked down depending on how the design of the sofa is going to be, for example, this could be in three sections so the three sections would be tied off separately. now the twine is tacked onto the four sides of the frame of the sofa. after the springs are attached the whole thing will be wrapped in burlaps and tacked down. they are then also tied to the spring to minimise movement. This will stop the springs from wearing the burlaps.

Padding

The sofa is now going to be padded with layers of burlaps and a chosen synthetic material. This is then arranged into place and stitched down and shaped according to what the design entails. This is then twined more and stitched again. About 7kg of sofa padding is then added to the whole seating area. This layer is then stitched down with loose stitched and then a lighter weight burlap this added to this. using stitching the seats are divided into two different parts called the front and the platform edge. the front is then reshaped to fit the desired need with hand stitching. Now another layer is added this layer will be a thicker layer of padding. A muslin sheep is applied, stitched to the platform to the front and back across to the platform. All this is tacked down and everything is checked and anomalies are then fixed.

Fabric

All pieces that will have fabric placed are measured and put into a list used to record what needs to be cut. the fabric material is then outlined in chalk. any pieces that need to be sewn together before being placed on it will be done now. The seat will now be covered with the panels which are hand-stitched into the platform and front with a layer of cotton batting between them. The front is covered first then the platform is covered with a pattern and all this is secured down. All the other pieces are taken care of the same way. A series of strategically placed cuts may be made, so the fabric clears all obstructions presented by the frame. Temporary tacks are replaced one by one with permanent tacks.

All parts are covered and all temporary attachments or pull tabs that allow the fabric to stretch are now secured down. First, a layer of cotton batting is added then the fabric is added on top and stretched into place. The fabric is then stitched into place. The webbing is checked for any gaps between the frame slats, if there are any gaps these need to be stuffed.

Padding should be basted over the gaps along the whole outside back. The fabric panel for this section may be welted, or edged with a decorative strip made of a stuffing cord covered in matching fabric. The covering is basted, then sewn at the top and tacked at the bottom as with the other parts.

Finishing

The sofa is flipped over and the base is coved with cambric which is a dust cover. all the finishing touches are added. The skirt on the sofa can be chosen from a variety of options. Arms with welted panel covers are available. Cushions are made separately to cover the seat. These are typically made of a ticking jacket encasing two pads, which in turn frame an inner core of foam. Each one is finished with fabric panels and a back zipper, allowing the case to be removed for dry cleaning.

This is how a sofa is made and this should help you understand how the 300-600 hours are spent making the sofa.