The sister duo of C&A Custom Stitching, Callie and April opened C&A Custom Stitching in 2018 after taking over the embroidery side of business from April’s mother.
“We started out as an embroidery business, working out of a shed in the backyard.” Callie Odell said. “April’s mom showed us the ropes.”
In 2020, the duo left their jobs and bought their next machine, a Chenille machine, the machine that makes all the custom patches the two put anything from letterman jackets to t-shirts After getting into the side of the business, the duo started their ‘Bleacher Box’ subscription box for sports moms. The box contains custom items to moms with the box contents being specific for whatever team and colors the moms are supporters of.
“We started it and it’s grown to way past the panhandle,” Odell said. “We’ve shipped to Michigan, and then to Ohio and Alabama. With all customized things for their teams.”
“We knew that if we wanted our business to succeed, we had to reach out further than Pampa,” Dyer said. “Our Pampa moms are what we call our ride-or-dies, but we knew we had to reach other areas.”
The subscription box has grown into multiple levels, now offering a ‘Bitzy Box’ for little kids with customized items of their picking, and ‘Stitch Box’ for parents of graduated students.
“C&A Custom Stitching, we are custom apparel, whatever you can thing of, that’s what we can do,” Dyer said. “Our boxes are very custom, our chenille is very custom. It’s not cookie cutter stuff you can find at any boutique, it’s unique to what you are wanting and what we can do. It makes it hard to display onto a website what all we have because everything is customized.”
One of the biggest things the business does each year is the letterman jackets the high school seniors get. With their ability to make and create nearly anything, the options of what can be added to the jacket are not limited to just sporting event related patches.
“That’s one thing we stress to our kids, it’s not just about sports, you can put anything you want on there,” Dyer said. “With the option to make things, we’ve made batches of the kids pet or culinary or choir and band patches. The jacket is to show what you did in high school, sports isn’t the only thing that you should be proud of or highlighting. We want you to have a jacket that has all the amazing things you did in high school. You don’t have to play a sport to get a letterman, you can come in and get whatever you want.”
Now the business has a “T-shirt Bar” with customized shirts that are made in bulk for shoppers to come in and pick, with the happy hour event happening on Thursdays.
“We thought it was a cool idea to do once we started making customized shirts for business or other events as needed,” Dyer said. “So we made a t-shirts bar with seasonal themed shirts or shirts we think are cute. But with that, there is still options to get something in a long sleeve or if you like the shirt but want something changed, we can still offer that to them. We have what we call ‘Thirsty Thursdays’ where the shirts are discounted.”
The business has continued to grow over the years, from a shed in a backyard to their store front on Kingsmill. The duo have grown more, now occupying the office space connected to where they started out in.
“It has been a blessing having a store, and the customers didn’t mind walking into the backyard when we worked out of there,” Dyer said. “The parents supported us even when their kids were walking into a random backyard to come to our shed. But we’ve been able to grow and continue to grow to the point we needed more room for all the equipment and work we do. So with our recent expansion we can keep the store and workshop separated even more.”
The company moved to Kingsmill in 2020 due to the bleacher boxes, not being able to house the boxes as they were getting made, along with machines and materials.
“The growth has made it easier to separate where everything is made and improve the shopping experience,” Dyer said. “We can leave all the noisy things over to the side and leave the shop more professional and easier to showcase.”
With growth into other cities in the Panhandle, the company now makes and can make custom apparel for your school, with some example already on their website.
“You can go to our website and select shop your school,” Odell said. “We keep it updated but everything is customizable so people can always call us and we can get something made to their liking. We add to that daily.”
With growth and the business continuing to expand, the next step is whole sale. The company has visited the Dallas market for supplies or materials, but will now be opening a shop in the market to further extend their reach.
“We’ve gone down twice, but now we are going to have a booth and vendor at the Dallas market,” Dyer said. “People will be able to come to our booth where we’re going to wholesale our Chenille apparel. We decided to do Chenille because it’s so unique, it’s the material that goes onto the letterman’s. We are proud of putting it on apparel and how well it has done. We decided to put it on a sweater one day, and the rest is history. It just went every where and I see it all the time.”
The company will go to the Dallas market in mid-March and will begin making wholesale items to be sold at their booth in the market for customers. The market is one of three, the other two are in Atlanta and Houston and have shoppers from all over the world visiting to shop.
“It’s a big deal for us to be in a position like this,” Dyer said. “We are going to be able to be seen by people way further than what we reach now. So it’s exciting for us to get into this and see how it goes. Growing out further, but we still are aimed at keeping our hometown feel. We want to still be on a personal level with our customers, never forgetting where we come from.”
If you can think it, April and Callie can make it happen. With more items and apparel than can be mentioned, C&A has it all.
To view their store, visit cacustomstitching.com or visit them at 113 W. Kingsmill.
“We wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are without our customers,” Dyer said. “We are so thankful and want to continue to grow and be able to offer more.”
