Arggh Spray Starch!!
 

I have never starched any of my fabric before cutting--even when I made the disappearing hourglass. But after reading many comments about stretching and bias cuts, I decided to do just that for my DD's Cascade quilt (http://www.robertkaufman.com/quiltin...scade/#color:1) using a tumbler template.

I am having a terrible time--not with stretching, but with breathing!! The worst was when I was actually spraying and ironing the fabric. After a short time my throat was sore and felt like I had a horrible cold. Now that I have begun sewing the strips, I can still feel it at the end of the afternoon but it is not as severe.

I have spray starched and cut about half the fabric. Do you think I should persevere and starch the rest or would it be okay to finish the project without starching the last of the fabric? BTW, I did not do heavy starching, just a light spray and press.

HEALTH comes first.....won't matter if the rest has spray starch or not. It will all come out in the first wash. Fabric will have a different hand to it than the first part.....but it will all be the same after the first wash.

Starch is mostly corn starch. It could be the propellant if you are using aerosol. Also the starch on non washed fabric will mix with the finishing on the fabric to make chemical steam.

I find my fabrics do better if I spray starch but it is not a "most do". Have you considered wearing a mask? Also, I will usually spray the front side of my fabric, flip it to the back side, then iron. Then I spray the back, flip to the front side, and iron again. I don't think that will make a difference with your breaking but the mask may help.

I'm following this thread with interest, not because I have an allergic reaction, but I dislike the way the spray gets all over things it's not supposed to. How did they do it in the olden days? Didn't they dip the fabric in a solution, hang it on the clothesline to dry, then iron? I have some vague recollection of reading about water that potatoes were boiled in; I won't go that far, but a simpler solution would solve both the sensitivity and overspray problems.

You can still buy liquid starch - Sta-Flo is one brand, made by Purex - and you can also make your own without resorting to boiling potatoes. One recipe even involves vodka. You can also buy non-aerosol spray starch and unscented spray starch.

My grandmother would dip clothes in starch in the sink. Wring them out and twist up tight. Then they were put in the fridge over night until ironing day the next day. The clothes were sprinkled with water and then ironed if they were dried on the clothes line after dipping in the starch.

It might be the propellant as another quilter mention. You might heck if you have Niagara non aerosol spray starch that is biodegradable.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Niagara-2...8580/202279668

Mom used her bread mixing bowl for mixing the starch solution in.

The procedure (as I remember it)

white starch (Argo brand? - I think it was a dark blue and white box - put in the bowl
cold water added to dissolve the starch
Boiling water added to the starch to make it translucent
Satina (a little rectangle of a blue waxy substance) added and stirred until it was dissolved - it was supposed to make ironing easier

The things that were supposed to be stiffest went first - it was dunk and hand wring -
The solution did get "weaker" as more things were dunked

Back then, line drying was the only option.

Then - the items were sprinkled - some time was given for the item to get evenly dampened - and then the items were ironed within a day or two , or refrigerated or frozen - depending on when one would be able to get around to ironing that stuff.

The overalls went in last.

The starching did seem to help with soil release.