Tea Rex Skirt

Tea Rex Skirt | Sophster-Toaster Blog

I’ll be doing things a little differently this year. Instead of trying to keep all of my new designs under a certain price point, and sacrificing exciting options and features to accomplish this, I’m going to make things the way I want and let them cost what they cost. With my first new skirt of the season, this meant doing things like using more fabric to make a fuller skirt, taking more time to line the skirt with lots of voluminous voile for a fuller, softer silhouette, and improving my patterns to include 2X and 3X  as size options. In other years, I may have skipped the lining, or offered a more limited size range, to keep the cost of my materials and labour down when it came time to determine how much I need to charge for my work; this year, I’m doing things differently – and I’m so pleased with how this piece turned out!

Of course, all of my older designs will continue to be available at their original price points and I will still strive to make a variety of items that range from lovely, but labour intensive dresses to high quality, screen printed tees to the accessories that I make with fabric salvaged from the leftover scraps of those dresses. I hope that new and returning customers and admirers alike will see the benefits and the importance of this type of ethically minded, eco-friendly slow fashion and be there with me as I hope to make some of my best work yet!

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T-shirt Sophster-Toaster
Skirt Sophster-Toaster
Shoes ModCloth
Necklace Craft Arts Market / Emery & Opal
Earrings old

All photos by me.

Vintage Fade

Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog

When I first started screen printing, I knew I wanted to work with eco-friendly water based inks. It didn’t take long for me to discover all the limitations and drawbacks of printing with water based inks, but I was determined to stick with the eco-friendly option.

The first time I washed one of my screen printed shirts, I was disappointed to see how much the ink had faded. After working so hard to get a crisp, dark print, my new t-shirt now looked old after one wash. With more practice and with better tools and techniques, I learned how to make better prints, but then, one day, as I was hanging a load of laundry out on the clothesline, I noticed how beautifully the ink had faded on one of the shirts I had made for my husband. The light black ink that said “BEER” in big block letters had blended with the heather grey cotton. The word still stood out but you could see the variegated flecks and bands of grey peeking out from underneath. It was at that moment that I had an idea: to stop fighting with the ink and instead embrace the vintage fade.

Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog

I looked for soft, worn-in feeling shirts with character for my fall season print and found the perfect, super soft t-shirts, with matching sweatshirts, in a woven three-tone plum colour. After one wash, the previously opaque ink fades to reveal the colourful character of the fabric beneath. What remains is the permanent, vintage fade look of the print, it won’t fade anymore with the next wash. (And don’t worry, you can wash the shirts regularly with your other clothes, they won’t damage your old favourites.)

I was so pleased with the results, I had to keep a sweatshirt for myself!

Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog Vintage Fade | Sophster-Toaster Blog

Sweatshirt Sophster-Toaster
Tank Garage
Pants ModCloth
Socks Roots

All photos by me.