Dawn and Jeremy Tolman pause from their work at Wilton Printed Products and Shirt Tales on Thursday in downtown Wilton.  The Tolmans purchased Shirt Tales and moved the equipment on to the second floor above Wilton Printed Products last month.

Dawn and Jeremy Tolman pause from their work at Wilton Printed
Products and Shirt Tales Thursday in downtown Wilton. The Tolmans
purchased Shirt Tales and moved the equipment on to the second floor
above Wilton Printed Products last month.

WILTON — The large printing presses at Wilton Printed Products have given way to digital equipment, opening up room for Jeremy and Dawn Tolman to add another printing process to their large downtown shop.

The Tolmans purchased the custom apparel shop, Shirt Tales, next door and last month moved the equipment above Wilton Printed Products in a space formerly used by Wilton Masonic Lodge.

While Jeremy sets up designs for printed paper products of all kinds, Dawn and worker Cathy Steward man the fabric printing machines upstairs. Along with screen printing and heat transfers, they have added embroidery designs to the services offered.

The lower floor still houses Wilton Printed Products but will share the space with a display for Shirt Tales once renovations are completed, Jeremy said.

The couple purchased Shirt Tales from Ron Touchette, keeping the name Touchette and his late wife, Wilma, gave the business when they started more than 20 years ago in Farmington. The future for the former Shirt Tales store site is unknown.

Both businesses carry a long history. Wilton Printed Products started more than 60 years ago in a small building on Depot Street across from the laundromat, Jeremy said.

“We’re going full circle, going back more to the way Betty and Harold Karkos started it,” he said, relating how the Karkos’ also did a fabric process along with the paper printing.

Jeremy’s parents, Ken and Sharon Thomas, purchased Wilton Printed Products in 1986. Pam and Steve Woodcock ran the business for a few years prior to the couple purchasing it from their parents in 2005, he said.

“We’re learning as we go,” Jeremy added. Although his mother trained him on the former printing machines, the new digital-computerized methods require readjusting his ways but are quicker and less expensive for both the business and customer, he said.

The older printing presses were sold and transported to India, he said. The large digital equipment is leased because of the constant upgrades in technology.

“They may be 30 years old to us, but overseas they are something new, something they haven’t had before,” he said.

Likewise, Dawn is learning the processes needed for printing and embroidering on fabric in the light, airy second floor.

“We’re becoming a one-stop print shop, from bath towels to business cards,” Dawn said.

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