How to frame a football or GAA shirt properly

A county jersey, a signed club shirt, a first set of colours: people bring these in rolled up in a bag, and the first thing we ask is whether they want it to look like a shirt or like a document. It sounds like a strange question. It is the one that decides everything else.

Folded, not flattened

Pinned flat against a backing board, a jersey loses the thing that made it worth keeping. We fold and pad instead, so the sleeves sit naturally and the fabric has some depth to it. That needs a deeper frame than a photograph does, which is why these go into a box frame rather than a standard moulding.

Decide what you want to see

Decide early how much of it you want to see. Most people want the crest and the number, which usually means folding the sleeves behind and letting the body fill the opening. If there is a signature, say so before we start, because it changes where the folds go.

Nothing is permanent

Nothing is glued and nothing is cut. The shirt is held with hidden stitches into the mount, so it can be taken out again years later without a mark on it. That matters more than people expect: shirts get passed on, and a frame should not be the end of the road for one.

Medals and memorabilia

Medals, caps and match programmes can go in alongside, or in their own frame beside it. A set of medals laid out properly under glass is often the piece that gets the most attention, particularly where there are several generations of them.

Bring the shirt in rather than sending a photograph of it. We will lay it out on the counter with a few mouldings and mount boards against it, and you will know in five minutes which way it should go.