LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

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Bagpuss
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LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Bagpuss »

Hi,
I have scoured the Forum and the Grumble for a bit more detail on stretching a football shirt onto Foamcore, prior to framing, I have done a few Football shirts in the past but could do with a few pointers. You may be able to point me to a previous posting but before you do, please read on.

I have been given 3 Chelsea shirts to put in 3 seperate frames and I'd forgotten how painful attaching the shirt to the 5mm Foamcore was :cry: I've tried the T-pins, I've had my little Micro Stitch tag gun out but I feel stitching is probably the best way. I know stitching takes a little patience but I'd be interested to know of the best approach when attaching a stretchy Polyester football shirt to foamcore.

Keep this to yourself but on the first shirt I tried "Lacing" the back of it to gather it up ( hope you can see attached photo ), is that a no-no ? Part of mean thinks that Lacing it was bad ... but it felt so good :rock:
your thoughts please.
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lacing_football7.jpg
lacing_football7.jpg (82.03 KiB) Viewed 5888 times
My real name is Adam Laver aka "Adam The Picture Framer", just in case you were unsure ; )
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by kev@frames »

no mate thats fine, lots of people lace the shirts. Whatever works for the job.
another probably quicker way is to pin into the edges of the foamboard only, and make a spacer in the back to accomodate the parts of the shirt that overlap round there. a bit of 6x12 par for example.

we've just done 15 for a rugby club that way, no problem.
here you go
Image
Roboframer

Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Roboframer »

Bagpuss wrote:Hi,
I have scoured the Forum and the Grumble for a bit more detail on stretching a football shirt onto Foamcore, prior to framing.
Shirts do not need to be 'stretched' they look far better with a more natural look rather than an 'embalmed' one.

It is necessary to stretch things that are intended for display - like needlework, but sports shirts were not intended for that, they are not 'pictures' they are/were functional things, and mostly loose fitting, designed to allow air to circulate; not cling to your every contour like cyclists' lycra (and - I know - the latest rugby shirts - to prevent grabbing of the shirt by tacklers) There is nothing wrong with a few natural wrinkles and/or undulations here and there.

You can insert a piece of foamboard cut to the shape and size you require, (a 'former') - don't make it wider than the average footballer's/rugby player's (etc) torso - otherwise it looks odd.

Temporarily pin loosely in place so that it is 'snug' but not tight, then sew or otherwise attach from the back, without coming through the front of the shirt, and then remove the pins and attach the shirt, sewn to its former, to your choice of mount by stitching under the collar, and other concealed areas from the front, plus more from the back anywhere you like using invisible stitches, or stitches that go through everything but the front of the shirt, or a tag gun, or a combination of those.

Then you have something, as long as there is enough space left around it, which is 'floated' and now you can do what you want with it. Frame it as it is, with spacers to set it back from the glass, add a mount, a mount plus fillet, whatever.

IMHO it is usually best to have that floated look and not mount over it - a sink mount is OK though. Whatever, you'll still need spacers of some sort if you wish (as you should) to avoid contact with the glass.
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by kev@frames »

not "stretched". We did this 70-odd year old shirt for a customer.
Image

thing is with a lot of these framed shirts the customers want them to look like the "official" products which they have seen at their big football club memorabilia shops. these are massed produced compared to what jobbing framers do, but they are mostly flat, streched, and have mounts. So thats what many people expect and mostly ask us for. The "box fresh" look, or "embalmed", depending on your point of view.
Plenty of these hang in minimalist "lads rooms" and blokes dens and they have collections, and want a uniform look.

Suits us because what works for the mass production also makes the job profitable for us (simple construction, no special techniques or time consuming fitting procedures) we charge an extra £25 flat rate for fitting a shirt.

personally i much prefer the way the one above came out - natural looking. But it is a 1930s original shirt. not a mass market item for the memorabilia sales market. Its a one off and treated as such. But as for shirts looking better un-stretched, thats subjective.

Then of course plenty of people want to incorporate a photo or two - and so you have to start using mounts.

These mass market "collectors" shirts are pretty expensive, yet I compare them to open edition signed prints. in most cases people are buying an autograph and so long as they can see the signature, and enough of the shirt to be recognisable as a shirt then that is exactly what they want in their collection.
Roboframer

Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Roboframer »

kev@frames wrote: Then of course plenty of people want to incorporate a photo or two - and so you have to start using mounts.
You don't either!

Unless you are using American speak - but I'm assuming you mean a 'window mount'

I've mounted photos by firstly fixing pieces of mountboard, or foam board, stitched to the shirt itself or around it bevelled away from the photo and then dry mounting the photo to that. I've even put frames around photos within football shirt frames.

Anyway - back to the original question - I don't think that lacing a sport shirt is 'wrong' - you have to stick pins through the back somehow, be they from a tag gun or a sewing box - it's just unnecessary.
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by kev@frames »

Roboframer wrote: You don't either!

Unless you are using American speak - but I'm assuming you mean a 'window mount'

I've mounted photos by firstly fixing pieces of mountboard, or foam board, stitched to the shirt itself or around it bevelled away from the photo and then dry mounting the photo to that. I've even put frames around photos within football shirt frames.

.... .
Dry mounting autographed photos? Hardly compliant with the conservation police ;)

Is this a piece of bevelled foamcore stitched to the shirt, (through to the former or backing?) then a photo dry mounted to another board and then stuck onto the foamboard? Seems a bit of a mission, unless you like stitching a lot.



here's an autographed shirt, and autographed photographs. It seemed far more straightforward to all concerned to use a window-mount.
Image
lol it shows a frame (photo of) within a frame. The original frame that we framed the shirt in, before it was presented to the customer, who decided he would like to add a photo of the presentation and an autographed photo.

lest adam gets the wrong idea about this discussion, there are plenty of ways of presenting football shirts, but basically the stretched flat look is the one most run of the mill customers are looking for.

I really like the idea of a frame-in-frame though. perhaps using moulding as a "fillet" as per the garden centre thread, in a mount.

feel some experimenting coming on.

never thought to put frames within another frame for photos like that. Be nice to see a photo if available.
Roboframer

Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Roboframer »

Now now, you never said 'autographed' photos first time!

But no, for a 'normal' photo you can cut a piece of foamboard to size - the exact size of the photo, but bevelled. Sew it to the shirt through the sides and dry mount with PMA - it's no 'mission' these stitches all help to secure the whole thing - you're not going to stitch the shirt and then stitch the foam board over existing stitches, you're going to incorporate them. OK - there may be one or two extra stitches required, but you're charging for that, just as you would be for extra apertures.

I do the 'reveal' as per your photos a lot, but mainly with medals above; not a shirt. Just that I have all this space in a deep rebated frame making it possible to do something other than cut some holes in a board.

If the photo is autographed you can still put it in a frame within the frame - but not so easily on the shirt without dry mounting - unless you trust artcare restore - I do - I just don't trust HEAT!!! (Well, myself and heat)


Don't have photos of frames within frames for sport shirts but I do have photos of frames within frames - probably posted before but anyway

....................'ang on .......



Got one .....
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Bagpuss »

Thanks for the replies Gents, clearly there's more than one way to skin the proverbial cat, always good to see examples as well :clap:
My real name is Adam Laver aka "Adam The Picture Framer", just in case you were unsure ; )
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by kev@frames »

Thanks for the picture, thats a good effect.

Is the frame within "sunk" into a mount or backing? Thats given me some nice ideas for something a bit different.
Roboframer

Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Roboframer »

No - it's actually an oil on stretched canvas, there was not much canvas wrapped around the stretchers so that's what I fixed it to the backing with.

The stretchers were also slightly deeper than the inner frame, so I was going to sink them through the mount, but I liked the effect it gave without doing that - it seems to 'float' off the mount as you cannot see the stretcher bars from any angle, just a gap between inner frame and backing.
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by kev@frames »

yes nice, i see what you mean, thanks for the pic, appreciated. :)
Maybe thats another good one for the Wiki?
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Pat Kotnour »

You may want to visit my web site. There is a post in the For Sale section that explains quite a bit. Good luck.
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by kev@frames »

thanks pat :) wheres the link? !
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Re: LACING the back of a Football Shirt ??

Post by Pat Kotnour »

If you go to www.Attach-EZ.com you will find all the information you need. Also, you can e-mail me with your phone number and I will call you. attachezoms@aol.com Let me know if you have any trouble opening my web site.
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