Patent Application
20240324798
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to pillow cases. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to a pillow case that has an internal flap formed inward along a bottom longitudinal edge opening that can provide a clean outer look to the pillow case, while preventing direct contact between the user and the pillow during use thereof.
The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Conventional pillow cases are typically formed from two pieces of material, stitched together along three sides with an opening along a fourth side, which is typically along a side (a narrow edge) of the pillow case. The pillow case permits a user to insert a pillow into the opening. During use, however, the pillow may move out of the pillow case, providing direct contact between the user and the pillow. Further, when the pillow is placed on a bed (or other environment), the opening, situated on the side, is visible and typically has loose, excess fabric hanging off beyond the pillow itself, which all provides for reduced aesthetics by both showing the separation and by potentially providing visual access to the pillow inside, which is typically of a different color or pattern from the pillow case itself.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a pillow case that can fully encase the pillow and provide a hidden opening to improve hygiene and aesthetics of the pillow.
Embodiments of the present invention aim to solve the aforementioned problems in conventional pillow cases by providing an internal flap at a bottom opening end of the pillow case. The flap may be extended around the side of the pillow that faces the pillow case opening, thereby encasing the pillow and providing a clean look with the pillow is placed with the opening side downward.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a pillow case comprising a top side of fabric; a back side of fabric; stitching joining the top side of fabric to the back side of fabric, wherein at least one top side edge of the top side of fabric is unstitched from at least one back side edge of the back side of fabric to form an opening to an interior of the pillow case; and a flap extending from the at least one top side edge toward an interior of the pillow case, wherein the flap extends across an entirety of the opening; and the flap extends inward toward the interior of the pillow case a flap length of at least 4.8 inches.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a pillow case comprising a top side of fabric; a back side of fabric extending continuously from the top side of fabric; stitching joining the top side of fabric to the back side of fabric, wherein at least one top side edge of the top side of fabric is unstitched from at least one back side edge of the back side of fabric to form an opening to an interior of the pillow case; and a flap extending from the at least one top side edge toward an interior of the pillow case, the flap formed as a continuous extension of the top side of fabric, wherein the top side of the pillow case is formed from curving the continuous sheet of fabric, without stitching there along; the flap extends across an entirety of the opening; and the flap extends inward toward the interior of the pillow case a flap length of at least 4.8 inches.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of preventing of encasing a pillow in a pillow case comprising disposing a pillow in the opening of the pillow case; separating the flap from the top side of fabric; and moving a bottom portion of the pillow into a space between the flap and the top side of fabric, wherein the flap extends around the bottom portion of the pillow and extends beyond the end of the back side edge of the back side fabric to completely surround the pillow with the pillow case.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.
Some embodiments of the present invention are illustrated as an example and are not limited by the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references may indicate similar elements.
The illustrations in the figures may not necessarily be drawn to scale.
The invention and its various embodiments can now be better understood by turning to the following detailed description wherein illustrated embodiments are described. It is to be expressly understood that the illustrated embodiments are set forth as examples and not by way of limitations on the invention as ultimately defined in the claims.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well as the singular forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one having ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present disclosure and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
In describing the invention, it will be understood that a number of techniques and steps are disclosed. Each of these has individual benefit and each can also be used in conjunction with one or more, or in some cases all, of the other disclosed techniques. Accordingly, for the sake of clarity, this description will refrain from repeating every possible combination of the individual steps in an unnecessary fashion. Nevertheless, the specification and claims should be read with the understanding that such combinations are entirely within the scope of the invention and the claims.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.
The present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments illustrated by the figures or description below.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, many careful considerations and compromises typically must be made when designing for the optimal configuration of a commercial implementation of any system, and in particular, the embodiments of the present invention. A commercial implementation in accordance with the spirit and teachings of the present invention may be configured according to the needs of the particular application, whereby any aspect(s), feature(s), function(s), result(s), component(s), approach(es), or step(s) of the teachings related to any described embodiment of the present invention may be suitably omitted, included, adapted, mixed and matched, or improved and/or optimized by those skilled in the art, using their average skills and known techniques, to achieve the desired implementation that addresses the needs of the particular application.
As used herein, the term “horizontal”, when referring to a side of a pillow case, is used to describe a longer edge of a pillow case. For example, for a rectangular pillow case, two sides of the pillow case are longer than the other two sides. The horizontal side or horizontal edge of the pillow case refers to the longer side of the pillow case. As used herein, a “bottom” side of the pillow case refers to the side of the pillow facing downward when the pillow is placed with its head supporting surface facing forward. Typically, the bottom side of the pillow case is one of the horizontal sides thereof.
Broadly, embodiments of the present invention provide a pillow case that includes an open end at the bottom/horizontal/wider end of the pillowcase, where a front fabric of the pillow case folds onto itself at the open end to form an internal flap extending at least partially up into the pillow case. The internal flap may be stitched to the sides of the pillow case. Typically, the flap may extend from about 4.5 to about 10 inches inward, typically about 4.8 to about 5.5 inches inward, from the open end. The pillow case may be formed from a single piece of material, folded to form a top of the pillow case, stitched along the sides, with an open bottom end. The flap can help retain a pillow 11 in the pillow case, can help avoid direct contact between a user and the pillow 11 inside the pillow case, and can help hide the pillow case opening to provide a more aesthetic display of the pillow 11 inside the pillow case.
Referring now to the Figures, a pillow case 10 can include a front surface 12, a right side 14, a left side 16, a top 18 and a back surface 26. The front surface 12 and the back surface 26 may be formed of fabric, where the right side 14 can have stitching 32 joining the right edge of the fabric of the front surface 12 and the right edge of the fabric of the back surface 26 and the left side 16 can have stitching 34 joining the left edge of the fabric of the front surface 12 and the left edge of the fabric of the back surface 26. In some embodiments, a blind stitch may be used to join the sides together. In some embodiments, the fabric of the front surface 12 may be a different piece of fabric than that of the fabric of the back surface 26. In this embodiment, stitching, indicated at dotted line 30 may be provided to join the top edges of these two separate pieces of fabric. In other embodiments, the fabric of the front surface 12 and the fabric of the back surface 26 may be formed from the same sheet of fabric material, folded onto itself. In this embodiment, no stitching is required along a top edge of the pillow case 10, and dotted line 30 may simply refer to a fold in the fabric.
The bottom of the pillow case 10 may be formed as an opening 20 to access an interior of the pillow case 10. The opening 20 may be defined by the end 24 of the fabric of the back surface 26 and a fold 21 in the material that forms an inward projecting flap 22. The flap 22 may extend inward (beyond the opening 20 toward an interior of the pillow case 10) between about 4.5 to about 10 inches, typically about 4.8 to about 9.0 inches, often about 4.8 to about 5.5 inches. The flap 22 may vary in the depth that it extends into the pillow case 10. Such variation may also depend on a size of the pillow, where the benefits of the present invention may be realized with a flap on the shorter end of the flap length range when the pillow is thin, where a thicker pillow may require a larger flap to still realize the benefits of the present invention. Studies have been performed to determine an adequate depth of the pillow case in order to provide the features and benefits of the present invention. In some embodiments, a minimum flap length (extending into the interior of the pillow case) is about 4.8 inches, 4.8 inches or 5.0 inches.
The sides of the flap 22 may be stitched into either the back surface 26 the top surface 12 or both. The flap 22 may span an entire length of the pillow case 10, where the sides of the flap 22 extend to the stitching 32, 34 on the right and left sides 14, 16 of the pillow case 10.
A user may open the opening 20 and place the pillow 11 into the pillow case 10. Once the pillow is inside, the user may extend the flap 22 around the pillow so that the flap covers the end of the pillow, prevent user direct contact with the pillow, preventing visibility of the pillow, and, when the pillow case 10 with the pillow is disposed with the top surface 12 facing forward and the opening 20 down on a surface (such as a bed), the opening 20 is not visible.
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The remaining length of the fabric, from the fold line 58 to the end 64 can be folded in half along fold line 60. Thus, a length 52 of the fabric of the top side 12 of the pillow case is the same as a length 50 of a bottom side 26 of the pillow case. The side edges may then be stitched to form the pillow case with the opening formed between the fold line 58 and the end 64. In some embodiments, the length 50 of the back side 26 of fabric may be slightly shorter than the length of the top side 12 of fabric, thus offsetting the opening on the back side 26 of the pillow, which may further help hide the opening to the pillow case.
All the features disclosed in this specification, including any accompanying abstract and drawings, may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
Claim elements and steps herein may have been numbered and/or lettered solely as an aid in readability and understanding. Any such numbering and lettering in itself is not intended to and should not be taken to indicate the ordering of elements and/or steps in the claims.
Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiments have been set forth only for the purposes of examples and that they should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, notwithstanding the fact that the elements of a claim are set forth below in a certain combination, it must be expressly understood that the invention includes other combinations of fewer, more or different ones of the disclosed elements.
The words used in this specification to describe the invention and its various embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification the generic structure, material or acts of which they represent a single species.
The definitions of the words or elements of the following claims are, therefore, defined in this specification to not only include the combination of elements which are literally set forth. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements in the claims below or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim. Although elements may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, it is to be expressly understood that one or more elements from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination and that the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.
Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within the scope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements.
The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted and also what incorporates the essential idea of the invention.
