Vinyl Leather Match Upholstery

Leather upholstery that has multiple tears at the seams between the pillow cushions and the frame may actually be a vinyl match. This means that the seating surface is leather but most of the non wear areas are a very thin vinyl. You can confirm this by pinching the “leather”. If the seating area is thick but the sides are very thin then you have a vinyl match. Many vinyls’s also have a Dacron backing which shows as a white fluff, like cotton batting protruding from the tear. Better quality vinyl will have a weave on the back.

This damage usually happens from stress placed on the seam. On the arms it is mostly from someone lifting the furniture by the pillow arm cushion. When the damage is on the top seams of the inside back cushions it is usually from kids sliding over the cushions from the back onto the seating area or something put on top of the sofa during storage or moving, like the loveseat on top of the sofa.

This type of damage is very difficult to repair as you have two different materials meeting at the seam. Normally vinyl is welded with heat which would damage the leather. The other problem is that this vinyl is so thin that trying to sew the damage may not be possible with out having some deformity to the seam as we may need to sew a fair ways back from the damage to give the area any strength.

Repairing this type of problem is possible but not easy and may not look as nice as a repair to all leather furniture.