Royal Wootton Bassett's Sonia Boswell puts patent on Zippon (From Swindon Advertiser)

Royal Wootton Bassett's Sonia Boswell puts patent on her Zippon duvet

2:44pm Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News

AFTER more than 30 years of getting annoyed with her husband for stealing the duvet, innovative Sonia Boswell has finally overcome the problem.

The 56-year-old, of Royal Wootton Bassett, has patents pending on the Zippon Bedding System and is looking for a manufacturer to take it on.

Sonia and her husband Roger have been using the invention, which stops the duvet from being pulled off, for the past six months.

“I don’t get cold nights in the winter months anymore. We have got harmony back in the bedroom because I don’t have to niggle him about taking the duvet,” said the grandmother-of-two.

“When I get out of bed in the night sometimes I watch him and he doesn’t actually touch the duvet now – I think it might be because he knows it’s staying in place. It works brilliantly.”

The Zippon Bedding System, which has a panel attached to the duvet, has zips on each side which attach to a sheet at the bottom.

The zips are two-way sliding zips, which can be done up as much or as little as needed and slide open when the user wants to get out.

“The panel prevents your partner from trying to pull it off you because of the design of it. You still have room to manoeuvre in bed,” said Sonia.

The new bedding entrepreneur first came up with the idea when her two children complained their duvets kept falling off in their static caravan during the holidays.

“The children used to say it’s fantastic coming here but the duvets keep going on the floor,” she said.

“They used to say ‘you can sew, why can’t you make something that keeps them on the bed?’ “I thought ‘I must be able to make something’. I kept messing around with designs and it was from there that the idea came to mind.

“Then I thought ‘this would work on our own bed’.”

The design, which has taken two years to create, is the result of several attempts.

Sonia said: “The first one was completely joined but a lot of people I spoke to said they like to have one foot out of the bed so I changed the design. Now it can be as open or closed as people want.”

Sonia, who is a self-employed private cleaner, made her own prototype out of a queen-sized duvet and zips from a sleeping bag.

She has been working with a firm in Salisbury called Innovate Product Design to develop the idea.

“For the best part of my working life I have wanted to do something different – I have always been creative, and wanted to do something better,” she said.

“When this idea came to mind I thought ‘this has got to sell’ because it works so well for us.”

For more information, visit www.zippon.co.uk/.

To contact Sonia, email designsbysfb@gmail.com