Senior overalls: a beloved Coppell spirit tradition spanning decades is worn by Coppell High School seniors on football home game days. They are customized to each individual’s interests, with different color themes, names, patterns and design elements.
Meet the fuel behind this tradition, local small business Jewels N Cotton, led by Julie Urbach and Jennifer Ham – a mother and daughter duo who have been piecing together these senior overalls for nearly two decades.
Graduating in the CHS Class of 2007, Ham participated in the annual tradition of senior overalls. Urbach became a trusted mentor to her son Bryan Urbach’s friends seeking help with their personal overalls.
As a result, Jewels N Cotton was born in 2009.
The business originally started with Urbach taking a few orders in Coppell, less than 10 a year. However, Ham joined her mother full-time in 2019 upon graduating from Angelo State University, using her bachelor’s degree in communications, to grow the business.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit and struck many small businesses, including Jewels N Cotton. Nonetheless, its spirit fought through the pandemic. To adjust, the business switched to Zoom consultations, introducing no contact drop-offs and pickups.
“We wanted to really make sure that this tradition didn’t get lost because the world was a scary place at that time,” Ham said. “We didn’t know what was going on, and I didn’t want the seniors that were going through life and all of this to miss out on other fun things.”
Since 2009, the business has expanded from traditional senior overalls to college skirts, supplying spirit wear across Texas, along with other states, such as Alabama or Pennsylvania. They have more than tripled their orders to 30-40 a year, with clients booking months or years in advance or being added to a waiting list. Some orders are unable to be fulfilled and have to be referred to other senior overalls businesses.
Their workspace can be spotted from afar, as a classic overall with bolded “JNC” letters on the bib hangs on the front door. Inside the home lies the studio, where thousands of girls have put together their senior overalls and cried, danced or squealed at its results.
One of its workspaces is Ham’s childhood bedroom. Now, it holds individual boxes of each customers’ fabrics, letters and customized elements, shelves of fabrics in any color you could possibly imagine, containers neatly labeled with “gemstones,” “black ribbon” or “red poms, ruffle and fringe.” On their giant table built by Steven Urbach, Ham’s dad and Mrs. Urbach’s husband, lies the fabrics and patterns that have made many girls’ dream overalls.
As Coppell residents, Mrs. Urbach and Ham understand the importance of senior overalls. The duo works year-round to ensure clients receive spirit wear on time, spending their days gluing, hand painting or glittering, designing personal elements to each individual’s overalls. They meticulously guide clients to ensure they receive the utmost quality for their overalls that can last years to come.
Jewels N Cotton has served generations of siblings, one being CHS senior Emme Ratliff. Seeing her sister Elle Ratliff’s experience working with Ham and Mrs. Urbach for her overalls, she knew Jewels N Cotton had the right hands to piece together her own.
“My sister did her consultation over FaceTime so our experiences were a little different,” Emme Ratliff said. “Despite that, it was still easy to do because of how flexible [Ham] was and how easy it was talking to her. I had mockups for my overalls and they were able to see the vision and bring it to life because they had so many fabrics that I had already wanted.”
They make sure to tailor each overall for individuals differently, especially for CHS Algebra II Honors teacher Hanna Treece. After seeing how students are dressed in senior overalls for Fridays, she decided to join the Coppell spirit and reached out to Jewels N Cotton in 2020 to create her own.
Treece’s overalls contain classic CHS color schemes of black, red and white in the front. Her bibs read “Mrs. Treece” in cursive. The back replicates the colors of her alma mater at the University of Louisiana with different elements, such as cajun, showcased.
“Every year I go and pull them out, I’m in awe of its craftsmanship,” Treece said. “Just that somebody pieced every bit of this together so thoughtfully; it just blows my brains.”
As a person of spirit, Treece loves to showcase her traditions and roots. As a Louisiana girl, she loves to highlight the vibrant holiday of Mardi Gras, a day to consume fats to prepare for the fasting period of Easter. She wanted to create something that reminds her of home away from home, when she’s unable to partake in this tradition in Louisiana.
So she reached out to Jewels N Cotton again. Together, they created a customized Mardi Gras themed overalls, highlighting its colors with sparkles, detachable necklace with sequin Mardi Gras suspenders from Treece’s childhood and triple ruffle layers of purple, green and gold at the bottoms.
Both overalls have been worn by Treece every year since.
“It’s an art piece,” Treece said. “They make every single project so unique and so personal. It’s something that I know I will keep for a lifetime because they’re so special and unique to me.“
Visitors to @jewelsncotton on Instagram not only find many of its past designs but also tutorials on how one can personally create their own overalls. Its posts guide others on measuring overalls, sewing fabrics or decorating pockets.
Because to Ham and Mrs. Urbach, these senior overalls aren’t just spirit wear, but also a fabric of memories for one’s senior year to hold onto for years.
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Gail Reeser • Oct 9, 2024 at 4:18 pm
Love this. I’ve known Julie and her daughter Jennifer for years and have watched their business grow. They are so creative and love what they do for seniors and parents.