Framing A Scarf (the Hard Way)

Have you ever had one of those projects that just takes you forever? You either don't know how to approach it, or you're just not motivated enough to get in to it? For me, that project was framing this scarf.

I got it at Forever 21 of all places for less than $5 back in September(ish). I kind of fell in love with all the colors and the pattern. I immediately knew I wanted to frame it and put it on the wall somewhere. But.... how? That was the question. The scarf is too big for regular sized frames and although it looks square in shape, it isn't perfect because well, it's a scarf. 

Luckily, I ended up finding an (almost) perfect sized frame at Goodwill one day for about $15. It was actually two frames in one - a thin white frame around a canvas painting of a lovely (cough) flower design. I took a picture of the before when I first bought it, but for the life of me I can't find it (that's how long I've been putting this project off). I'm so glad I found this frame because to get a frame in a custom size like this at Michael's would be hundreds and hundreds of dollars! 

I figured I could take off the canvas, spray paint the frame a nice black and attach the scarf somehow. Somehow... The scarf ended up being a little to small to wrap around the inside canvas frame, so I was stumped for a long while on how to actually make it work. Seriously, this frame has been sitting in our office (and annoying my husband) for the better part of seven months. 

Then, it came to me. In a vision, if you will. Just attach the scarf to a big white sheet and use the extra sheet to attach the scarf to the frame with staples just like a canvas. Of course! Duh! My motivation was ignited once again. So I got to work and spray painted the frame a nice satin black.

I did about 2-3 thin coats and let it sit outside for a day or two. Then came the scarf situation. I had purchased a big white flat sheet at Wal-Mart for $5 for another couple projects I'm working on. I pinned the scarf flat to the sheet and left plenty of room on each side to wrap it around the wood frame and staple it to the back (like a canvas - yeah, I'm still laughing at myself for how long it took me to figure this out). 

Like I said, the scarf is not a perfect square shape so it made it a little difficult to pull tight and symmetrical. After I pinned, I hand stitched the scarf to the sheet making sure to pull it tight as I went along. 

Next up was stapling the scarf to the frame. It was a little tricky to line up since the scarf was just a bit smaller than the frame (meaning some of the white sheet would show through on the front). After I got it lined up as best I could I stapled in the middle of each side first. You know, Catholic style. Spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch. That way I ensured it was pulled tight and flush across the frame. 

It's not perfect, but then again, it's a scarf.

Then came the really fun part. And by really fun, I mean not fun at all. I thought it would be easy as pie to put the frame back together. It was originally held together by extra long staples. Easy enough, right? Wrong. I spent a long time trying to hammer the staples back in - I used different nails, screws, etc. to get the black outer frame attached to the canvas frame and failed miserably. Husband to rescue!

We ended up using big flat nails to get the frames to stick. It's not really pretty, but that part won't be showing. 

I put it up on this big blank wall in our bedroom.

And it fills the spot quite nicely.

You can see the small sliver (about 1/2 and inch) of the white sheet on the left and right side, but it's not too bad. It covers the wall space well and brings a lot of color and pattern to the room. The small black frame works really well not to complete with all the pattern. I'm just so glad it's finally done! I love all the color it brings to the room!