Alternative Apparel has always been an innovator when it comes to fabrics, colors, and cuts, but their new line of eco-heathers and organic cotton apparel has most definitely raised the bar. Generally a constricted niche in the past, Alternative Apparel is now producing lines of eco-friendly products with no restriction on color or sass. A couple examples below:

Eco-Heather Crew
Unisex regular fit eco-heather s/s p.e. tee. Made with Eco-Heather, our uniquely imperfect blend of organic cotton, recycled polyester, and naturally occurring rayon.

• 20’s Eco-Heather: 38% cotton (6.25% organic cotton), 50% polyester (6.25% recycled poly), 12% naturally occurring rayon
• Low-impact yarn dyed, fabric washed for a super soft hand

The Rocky Eco-Fleece Zip Hoodie

Unisex regular fit l/s zip hoodie with kangaroo front pocket. Natural color zipper tape, nickel zipper, and shoestring hood ties give this classic item retro appeal. Wintertime just got a whole lot cozier!

• Eco-Fleece: 50% polyester (6.25% recycled), 46% cotton (6.25% organic cotton), 4% naturally occurring rayon
• Low-impact yarn dyed; enzyme fabric washed for a super soft hand
• Resilient fabric

We’re getting ready for the Green Festival in Sf by printing up some goodies. We want to show how soft and vibrant water based screen printing can be, so we’re making some totes and other fun things to pass out. Are you going to be there? Send us a tweet – we’ll track you down and give you some booty.

We’ve recently added ECOBAGS® as a supplier and ever since, our staff can’t stop fighting over the samples they’ve sent over. Our favorites? The Canvas Shopping Tote made from recycled cotton and the 100% Organic Canvas Book/Overnite Tote.  We asked Chris, our lead designer and resident tester why she loves hers, and she says, “They’re super sturdy and the perfect size.  I use mine for grocery trips or a weekend night-bag.”

***BONUS: Are you a Twitter user?  Tweet about the contest with hashtag #ecoprintworks and you’ll receive a second entry.

//***EDIT***// Congratulations to Jared Karnes from OneTribe Organics – winner of our free custom tote contest. Below are a couple pics of the finished product.

We work with a lot of up and coming designers to help create their own clothing lines – using our water-based inks to create custom printed labels. Think you’ve got ideas that the world should see? Give us a ring or drop us an email. We’re happy to talk over the process.

I’m not sure if we needed to travel this far to experiment with Permaset, but as Berlin is at the forefront of the screen printing industry, it wasn’t a bad excuse to take a little trip.

Below are a few pictures of us at the studio of Lindsey Ruben who runs a boutique couture print shop experimenting with Permaset. More to follow…

Ecoprintworks Berlin Permaset

By popular request, we’re now offering recycled hang-tags from our friends at Greenerprinter up in Berkeley.Recycled hang tags are a great way to brand your apparel – as well as pass along important information to customers about the production characteristics of both the garment and the printing process employed to create your beautiful finished product. Drop us a line today at 877.326.2052 to talk about minimums and costs. You can also contact us here.

The Vallon Institute, a think tank out of Washington DC focusing on health and social sustainability has, in an effort to raise funds and awareness for their cause has come up with an adventure race called Go Urban. Go Urban, in their words, is a mash-up of competition, problem solving, teamwork, and urban adventure designed to promote their Get Outside (GO) initiative.

Go Urban got with us to help create custom apparel that would be representative of their core values of sustainability and environmental responsibility.

The races will take place in thirteen locations throughout the country. You can sign up here.

Stumbling along the web, I came across something quite amazing – A weblog collection of my favorite kind of artist: screen printers, all displaying their beautiful work, answering questions about inspiration, technique, materials – and best of all there are links to each and every one of their Etsy shops. If you don’t yet know about Etsy, be careful. You may find yourself deep in a two hour shopping spree before you know it. Etsy is a network of craft people from all walks and styles putting their unique wares up for sale. Custom printed pillows to custom dog collars, this is the best place I’ve found for unique gifts. Never fails.

I’m not sure if these folks are all water based screen printers :] but check them out here nonetheless.