Thrifty Thursday Vintage Maps

I love old maps, especially fabric ones, but those are hard to come by. However, old atlases are still pretty easy to find at the thrift store. Today's thrifty Thursday project started with a couple of old atlases and those giant pick-up sticks I used last week (HERE). 

The maps in these old books are lovely, the colors make my heart go pitter-patter. But, the paper they are printed on is thin and tears easily. 

I decided to add a canvas back to them to make them more sturdy and to help them hang nicer. I used Wonder Under paper backed fusible web to adhere the map to drop cloth canvas.

Be sure to use an old towel on your ironing board and a pressing cloth if you think you will mess up your iron (I was very careful because I have used Wonder Under a lot in the past). I cut my canvas pieces larger than the maps and then trimmed them with a rotary cutter.

I cut the pointy ends off of the pick-up sticks and then hot glued them to some of the maps, using jute as a hanger.

Others I used old, wooden pant hangers to hang the map. Be sure to look through the atlas well, there are other fun things like this world time zone map.

The atlases I used were from 1942 and 1943.

I also had a 1955 Yellowstone map that I added a canvas back to.

Keep your eyes open for old atlases--they are often on top of the book sections at thrift stores because they are over-sized.