After schools were shut down due to COVID-19, many students took time to sleep in and relax.

However, senior Aly Pennington, along with sister Ashley, utilized her time to start a custom embroidery business, AP Custom Tees. 

“We started around the end of April when we were in lockdown,” Aly Pennington said. “Because of the lockdown, we tried new hobbies to entertain us and we both really enjoyed embroidery and eventually thought why not sell these!”

Her journey began unexpectedly, as embroidering started merely out of curiosity. 

“I was on Tik Tok and saw a girl make a shirt, and I wanted to just try it for fun and then ended up actually being pretty good at it,” Pennington said. “Also our grandma does a lot of sewing so it would be cool to show her.”

While this was a new skill to Pennington, she is no stranger to creative expression. 

“I am a very artistic person,” Pennington said. “I love to sketch, paint, dance, play piano, and embroider so it was right up my alley. My sister doesn’t usually do a lot of artistic things, but during quarantine she tried a lot of new things, one of them being embroidering.”

Their custom designs now range from college logos to fun phrases.  

“I decided to buy from them because I know that they’re such sweet people,” senior Kelsey Deskin said. “Aly has been in a few of my classes over the years and she is so nice! So I knew that the business was operating in the hands of people who truly cared about those buying their products. I found them through Instagram and saw how adorable all the designs they had made for others were, and I was happy to contribute money, especially during COVID-19. But I am so happy with the shirt I got, which says “curly girlie” and I wear it all the time!!”

Both with busy schedules, Aly and Ashley plan to work between school breaks. 

“We will definitely pick it back up seasonally,” Pennington said. “But with school and our extra curricular activities that were both very involved in, it would be tough to balance it all if we did it year round.”

While she has enjoyed the hands-on artistic experience, Pennington mostly appreciates the time she gets to spend with her sister. 

“My favorite part about the business would be spending a lot of time with my sister because we would sit at the kitchen table for hours and listen to podcasts or have good conversations,” she said. “We also go together to the store every couple days to gather new supplies. It was also really cool to see the customers post about their new shirts because it made us feel like we did a good job!”