The Framers Forum

I’m looking for some help, advice and examples please.

I’ve been asked if I can frame a signed sports shirt which as I’m just starting out is something I have never done, I did take a good look at the example work pieces on the textile framing stand at the Fine Art Trade Guild weekend that I attended recently but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to quiz the lady who was running that workshop as it was always busy.

Can anyone give me advice on ways to go about this please, point me in the direction of tutorials and videos if there are any, recommend books that cover this technique and post examples of work you have done so I can get some ideas of what is possible and the different ways of presenting the shirt.

Also, the shirt is a modern polyester one and I’m assuming it’s been signed with marker pens so are there any conservation issues I need to consider, primarily to prevent fading but also for materials used in mounting and any needlework required?

Hi
Framing sports shirts can be quite complex to some, it's a 'top dollar' everyday framing job, the first place to look is on here the forum, use the search facility , I just typed in 'Sports Shirt Framing' bring up a long list of threads regarding this, here is one of the top ones
https://www.theframersforum.com/viewtop ... ng#p137162

I have even posted to that tread, I do a 'DIY' version, one of the easier methods to do, the customer can put the shirt in themselves, so I just supply the frame for around £100.00 or I can pop it in for them for an extra £30.00

One thing you nee to do is keep the glass off the shirt it it's been signed with marker pens, as the glass gets condensation on the inside surface , so you don't want that touching the ink, it might run!

When I do a Full Custom job, showing all the shirt, with a former inside of the shirt , my starting price is £200.00

It's really hard to do a decent job, when framing a shirt if you cannot charge enough. Before the lockdown came along, I was charging £150 and that was mostly because most customers for football shirt framing around where I am based are really reluctant to even pay that much. To be honest at £150, I have to limit what they are getting for the money, otherwise it is quite difficult to make a worthwhile profit margin at all. It is a fact that if you are going to produce anything of that size which is going to look stunning, then the material cost is not going to be cheap!

Also don't forget that your hourly labour rate needs to be set at a realistic level. In the same amount of time you are spending framing a sports shirt, you can often be framing several other items and if you are not charging enough for framing the sports shirt, then you are better off sticking to the other more straight forward jobs, because you will make much more profit. For my basic price of £150, this only includes a half sheet of mountboard at the rear. I produce a front frame and a separate tray section for the back, so that I can assemble everything into the tray and load the tray and the glass into the front frame.

If i am required to include a front mount, I like to make the box section a bit more substantial so as to support the mount and prevent the risk of an unsupported mount not staying nice and flat. Although I produce plenty of other jobs using handfinished frames, I don't do this for sports shirt frames as it does not make financial sense to do so. You are much better off doing it with factory finished mouldings and this will save you lots of time and preserve your profit margins for you as well. I don't really care if I don't get any sports shirt framing jobs at all. Unless the customers in your area are willing to pay a sensible price it will be very hard to produce a stunning result.

I am not greatly keen to take on much work framing either sports shirts, or full size Ordinance survey maps, but involve quite a bit of work and prospective customers keep trying to tell you that the don't want to pay that much to get the job done! There a lot of fiddling about getting sports shirts to look right and to be truthful, I do not enjoy doing them very much anyway!

Full size Ordinance survey maps have almost always been rolled into cardboard tube for postage and are printed on really thin paper and don't really stay flat unless you dry mount them onto something really solid and flat. Customers are not very keen on paying about £50 just for the dry mounting and moan about the map only costing a tenner. Customers like to see these framed in a skinny moulding and I often end up choicing a deeper frame, so that there is room for adding a sub frame.

At my age, I like to think that I can pick and choose what sort of jobs I want to do and which I don't want to do.

Perhaps I should add that a friend has asked me if I can do this and my interest is solely to use it as a project to learn from, not as a way to make any money.

Good way to learn, doing for friends & family, and also as samples for your shop/workshop

It's not uncommon when doing framing for friends, that they will recommend you to their friends and as a result you may get more work from referals. Do a good job for these people and it can be a good way to get future work and it might just be really helpful to you as a good way of building your business. I've always gained a lot of work as a result of the same thing through word of mouth and that's how I got started.

Hello all

I've done a fair few sports shirts now but they are few and far between so I find myself having to remember how to do it every time.

My usual approach is foam insert, a bit of sewing, a bit of tag gun to attach to the mountboard. No nasty tape or glue. What I'm wondering is, how do people tend to secure the bottom of the shirt to the foam? I've seen a video linked to somewhere here which is pretty good overall but then they go and stick the shirt down with fabric tape. What's the better, conservation friendly way? Is it even necessary?

Cheers,
Megan

If you make sure the foam insert is a very good fit you don’t really need many attachments. I use a couple of stainless steel dressmakers pins either side of the collar into the side of the foamcore, and also either side at the bottom to hold in place. They are pretty much invisible.

If you're not confident of doing a first class job, say so and turn it down, quite a few Youtube videos and even Lion have one.
The go to Sports Direct and buy a cheap sports shirt and practice the various types, it'll give you the confidence you need.

Plenty of places offer day courses in framing sport shirts - including myself.
Might be worth looking into that as many of the youtube videos and so on feature products that can cause damage to shirts.
As many of them are valuable due to signatures and so on, it is worth doing them right and getting a reputation for that.

"Fabric tape" or any other type of self adhesive tape on the shirt itself is a big no.

girlfromkent wrote: ↑Thu 01 Feb, 2024 8:22 pm
………What I'm wondering is, how do people tend to secure the bottom of the shirt to the foam? I've seen a video linked to somewhere here which is pretty good overall but then they go and stick the shirt down with fabric tape. What's the better, conservation friendly way? Is it even necessary?

Cheers,
Megan

A method I liked is to position the the shirt on the bottom of the board as shown with its insert (dotted lines); tag it (black dots) close to the bottom of the former, then flip it back on to the board and tag/sew the rest.

As for conservation, if done with stitching or tags, you’ve done something to it, which will show if removed in future.

There are ways to do nothing at all, like simply hanging it with a combined former/hanger, or framing it worn on a mannequin, but then the sharpie signatures will eventually fade anyway, if signed - and if not, maybe the shirt will, they’re not made to be displayed, they’re made to be pretty disposable really.

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Thanks John that's a really helpful tip!