My handmade giant wall map

I've been looking for a while for a giant wall map to hang in my house- I want to put map pins in all the places my husband and I have been, and mark all the places we will go as a family. All the maps big enough for me were so expensive that I couldn't justify buying one. So the crafter in me decided to have a go at making one myself. Below is the finished result, which I'm really proud of... especially as I did it for under £20! 

I ordered a metre of this gorgeous world map fabric from Amazon: for £12.99 including delivery. After cutting it to size, I still have plenty of scraps to make purses, cover notebooks and use for any other mini project I find on Pinterest! 

The other major element needed for this map was a frame big enough to accommodate all the fabric. I priced cork- too expensive, even from eBay. While browsing in my local B&M, I came across a huge canvas painting in the sale for £5- not really my taste at all (it was giant flowers- you can see the outline of them in the picture below, but you can't see them through the fabric from the front!) Perfect!

I also needed all purpose strong glue, pins and sellotape. First, I stretched the fabric around the canvas painting and secured with dressmakers' pins until I was happy with the positioning of the countries. Working from one side at a time, I glued all the way round, keeping the fabric stretched tight with pins until the glue dried... I didn't want a baggy map! I actually pulled the fabric even tighter with sellotape while it dried.

Making the corners neat was another challenge. This involved more glue, more pins, and patience! I'm pleased with how sharp I managed to get the corners though. 

Overall, I'm delighted with the way the map turned out. Now I need to start filling it with map pins!