Marie R

I am new to quilting and have read several times that people starch their fabric. How is this helpful? Do you starch all of your fabric?

Murphy

Particularly when working with fabric on the bias, starching keeps it from moving out of shape while you work with it.

amma

For me, starching makes my cuts nicer, stacked fabric especially, the fabrics don't slide when I move my ruler.
For bias pieces, I starch very heavily, and don't have to worry about having ripply blocks :D:D:D

crashnquilt

I starch all my fabrics. I pre wash it and then starch it. Starched fabric is much easier to sew, cut and pressing the blocks.

When starching your bias binding, do a heavy starch and fold in half while ironing. You will find this will stick the two sides together and much easier to handle while sewing binding.

lisalovesquilting

Magic Sizing is good also. I use it because I live in an area where the starch could attract silver fish and other bugs.

scowlkat

Hello, I am scowlkat and I am a starchaholic! I probably have 10 cans around my sewing room including the ones in my trolleys! I love Best Press best but regular spray starch does seem to give a firmer hand to the fabric.

valinwa

So how much starch do you use, I mean do you lightly spray or really wet it down, or would it depend on the fabric, more on light weight less on heavier?

Jim

I starch bias cuts heavily...I spray it and let it soak in for 5 to 15 minutes while inside a plastic bag...then sometimes spray again.

ckcowl

starching adds body and stiffness to your fabric making it easier to get accurate cuts, blocks go to gether (crisply)
some fabrics that are thin, haven't much body, or if accuracy is really important starching really helps. as far as
all the time? no...only when necessary.
i keep a spray bottle of water on my ironing board, when pressing i spritz with water, if it is not enough then i grab the starch, but one can of starch has lasted me over 3 years.

leatheflea

Its made all the differnce in my pieceing, well worth the extra step.