The Framers Forum

Most of my frames are football shirts so I'm normally quite good at solving the interesting problems they throw at you, but this one has me stumped.

The customer wants as much of the shirt on display as possible, including the lower sponsor and the league decals on the arms, and I agree I think that's a good style and would look good.

Now, the problems

The quality of the shirt is awful, the seams across the top of the shoulders is not equal one is approaching 5cm longer than the other! If I centre the collar the arms look unbalanced.

The seam between the two halves is not straight.

The name is massive, I would normally fold the arms over to display the decals, but there isn't enough room, if I have the arms slightly out then (partly because of the way the seams are I guess) it's impossible to get it flat without wrinkles.

I use foam board as an insert normally to stretch the shirt over as well as inside the arms, the shoulders sloping away from the centre. I may have to create a more shaped insert maybe.

I'm looking for inspiration for other ways to mount it I think because my normal process just isn't going to work for this shirt
This shows one of my first shirts and the kind of thing the customer was after for this shirt too.

This sounds like the shirt is a "game warn" item vs an "out of the box" one. The imperfections are what they are and you have to explain that to the client that this adds "character" to the displayed item. I do not know anyone who wants a "game warn" shirt to look new.

The solution might be to have the shirt washed and pressed on a laundry mannequin. I do not think that the client would appreciate that being done.

It's not match worn (thank goodness, they stink!) , but it is signed.

Shirts are not my area, but it sounds like you might need some intentional ripples in the sleeves/shirt to make it work.

Hi,
You can cover the foamboard or mountboard insert with a sheet of dacron glued on with Evocon-R glue this helps pad the shirt and helps remove some creases on uneven areas. Remember these shirts are meant to be worn not framed so they are all different so you have to do the best you can.
Mitreman