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How to Make a Junior Jewels Shirt

Painting custom T-shirts is a great way to connect with a young Swift fan.
Ableimages/Digital Vision/Getty Images

In her 2009 video, “You Belong With Me,” Taylor Swift wore a handmade T-shirt with the words “Junior Jewels” emblazoned across the front. According to Country Music is Love, Swift borrowed the handmade shirt from her fiddle player Caitlin Evanson. The shirt was a memento from Evanson’s band camp days. In addition to the words “Junior Jewels,” the shirt also has signatures from many of Evanson’s fellow campers. Many Swift fans make their own version of the shirt to wear to concerts and other Taylor Swift events.

Things You'll Need:

  • Permanent Markers In Various Colors
  • Blue Fabric Paint
  • 3 Small Paint Brushes
  • Oversized White T-Shirt
  • Yellow Fabric Paint
  • Puffy Black Fabric Paint
  • Cardboard Shirt Form
  • Red Fabric Paint

Slide the cardboard shirt form inside the T-shirt to hold the shirt flat and prevent the fabric paint from soaking through the front of the shirt to the back.

Write the word “Junior” in approximately 6-inch letters across the chest of the shirt in black puffy paint. Write the word “Jewels” underneath in equally large letters in black puffy paint.

Make small triangular peaks all the way around the neckline of the shirt in the black puffy paint. The bottom of each triangle should be about 1 inch. Let all the black paint dry over night.

Paint alternating triangles of yellow, red and blue all the way around the front of the neckline, starting at the shoulder. Let the paint dry for three hours.

Trace around the words “Junior Jewels” with black permanent marker.

Turn the shirt over and color the triangles around the neckline of the back of the shirt with the same alternating colors.

Remove the cardboard. Put the shirt on. Hand out pens to your friends and ask them to sign your shirt.

Tip

Since puffy paint squeezes out through an applicator tip, it may be easier to write the words in permanent marker and trace over them with the tip of the applicator.

If you don't have a cardboard shirt form, cut a sheet of cardboard to fit inside the shirt, or spread a plastic bag inside the shirt.

Warnings:

  • Wear old clothes when painting T-shirts, as the fabric paint stains.
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