Kristine Hernandez created an embroidery design at 3 a.m. from her Kinsolving bedroom — a frog with a cowboy hat that reads “Howdy from Austin.”

She said she never anticipated sweatshirts embroidered with that design would sell out at the University Co-op in just three days.

“I was not expecting that at all,” Hernandez said. “There’s so many options (shoppers) can go with, what are the odds they go with a student-made sweater?”

Hernandez, a human development and family sciences freshman, sold her designs as part of the Student Business Empowerment Initiative, a collaboration between Student Government and the University Co-op that gives student entrepreneurs the opportunity to sell their products at the Co-op.

“We love the idea of providing a platform for students to offer their merchandise in store to gain real world experience and generate revenue,” Co-op marketing director Kate Mounger said in an email.

Hernandez said she started embroidering at 16 to pass time during the first months of the pandemic.

“I’ve always been a very creative person, but I’m not very creatively gifted,” Hernandez said. “I really wanted to try different mediums … It’s like painting but with a needle and thread.”

Hernandez said she made small projects for herself at first, but during her senior year of high school, started posting her designs on Instagram and creating custom orders for family and friends, naming her business “Dandelion Dreams.”

“In the beginning, (my profit) was small change,” Hernandez said. “It was more about me actually making (embroidery) and putting it out there. That was what made me really proud.”

The summer after Hernandez graduated high school, she said she entered a new era of her business, driven by a new embroidery machine and her first big order — over 50 custom tote bags for a local school district.

“I’d only ever made three (tote bags) at a time,” Hernandez said. “My mindset had to shift because this is my hobby, but I (needed) to take it a little more seriously.”

Hernandez said the first big order helped her learn how to run her business by setting schedules and deadlines for herself.

“I admire her work ethic,” said Hernandez’s mom, Melissa. “She’s organized and hard-working, more than a lot of adults I know.”

Hernandez said she continued creating custom orders in college, but she wanted to start selling her own designs instead of ones commissioned by other people, driving her to apply to the Co-op initiative in January.

“At that point in my business, I was still doing customs other people wanted,” Hernandez said. “It’s fun, but I really do want to put my efforts into something that I designed and that I really like doing.”

UT student government selected Hernandez’s design, combining UT spirit with her love of frogs, to be sold at the Co-op alongside other student businesses. After selling out in just three days, Hernandez immediately started working on more sweatshirts to restock.

In the future, she said she wants to continue seasonal drops of original designs now that she feels in charge of her brand.

“Entrepreneurship for me is the ability to take control of your creative vision and do what you want to do with it,” Hernandez said. “That’s why I applied to the program.”