Local Ladies Make an Imprint on the Community

When South County resident Amy Williams found her calling in life, she decided to put it on a T-shirt.

Williams is the owner of the newly-opened Shirtabulous, located at 5496 Baumgartner Road in Oakville. And if you would have asked her five or 10 years ago, she would have described herself as teacher rather than an entrepreneur.

With a full-time career in education squarely under her belt, it seemed that the universe had an entirely different plan for Williams.

“I have a functional movement disorder in my left leg, my right hand and my diaphragm. I was told a long time ago, (by doctors) ‘You need to slow down,'” she said. “I think it was God who said, ‘You will slow down’ and I ended up with a tremor that caused me to not be able to finish my school year.”

That was three and a half years ago.

With a newly acquired abundance of time on her hands, Williams was in search of something to do.

“I needed something to keep myself out of trouble,” she said.

In the immediate term, she put her teaching skills to work. She filled her days by volunteering at her son's school and tapped into her creativity by teaching art classes. But in the end, financial demands won out over creative freedom.

“My husband and I had always talked about maybe doing a silk screening business,” Williams said.

The reality was that the work would have been too physically demanding and too cumbersome for the space they had to run a home-based business.

But Williams persevered and discovered a more physically feasible outlet that was just as creatively fulfilling. She discovered the art of the vinyl heat press and thus, Shirtabulous was born.

“I do the designing on the computer and we buy the vinyl. It turns out it’s a local company that I get it from in Westport. It’s a recycled product,” Williams said. “We have three industrial cutters and we have heat presses in the back that cook (your design) on there at 345 degrees. It could be a shirt or whatever garment it is.”

Initially, the main focus was T-shirts with a Christian message. Eventually she added what she calls “blingy sprinkles” to further personalize the items. Steady work would keep her busy for the next three years.

“We were so busy working from home and I just felt like I was to the point where I couldn’t get away from it. And that wasn’t healthy for me either,” Williams said. “That’s how we decided we either have to go big or pack it in. We decided, let’s do it.”

But fate would once again intervene. Enter Kate Collet, Williams’ mother and best friend.

“I was a school administrator in the city,” Collet said. “Due to changing neighborhoods and the changing economy, my school closed and I wasn’t ready to retire.”

Already a skilled embroidery machinist, the timing was right for Collet to step in complete the package.

Now, a storefront location allows anyone to walk in and custom order their own message T-shirt, baby blanket or headband.

The process lends itself to all fabrics, including leather. Even the must-have aluminum water bottle can be customized. In fact, Williams and her mother encourage people to BYOB – bring your own blank.

Much of their business base comes from local schools. Spirit wear can be tweaked to allow each student his or her own flare.

“You can walk into a classroom and see 30 shirts, but they’d all be just a little bit different. A girl might have the same design as a boy, but she might have a little bling on it, or maybe her last name on the back. Or he might want the year on his sleeve,” Williams said.

The shop also offers space for do-it-yourself work.

“We’re going to offer make-and-take-it night for ladies and we’re doing birthday parties,” Collet said.

For now, as far as this mother-daughter duo is concerned, this opportunity has been a saving grace. Collet can now choose retirement instead of retirement choosing her. For Williams, living life at her own pace is helping in her recovery.

Her doctors feel they can "make her a whole mom again.”

But Williams said that everything happens for a reason, “God obviously takes care of all of us.”