I love, love, love BP but the price is high, never find it on sale. I mixed mine w/ water & ended up with black looking beads in bottom of bottle. Learned -- always used distilled water! You can also get it unscented.

I bought a small one at Joann's in one of the dollar bins - wish I had bought several more - it is awesome - never drips and I get a very fine mist.

LOVE best press! the flavors are enchanting!! worth the money, sometimes i add a little water to make it go further.
katz

I agree it is wonderful. I have tried many brands but alway come back to this. A little pricey but definitely worth it.

Thanks for the tip to buy on Amazon. Never thought of that! :)

I bought the first I have ever used yesterday. I wish the shop had carried the unscented version because the scent is way too strong.

I am going to be the dissenter here because I honestly cannot tell it makes any difference other than the odor.

I will stick with starch before cutting and my spray bottle of water when pressing seams. JMHO

I'm a fairly 'new', self taught quilter and would like for someone to tell me about using starch while quilting. When, how and why do you use it?
Thanks!

GJ, I use it when I press the fabric before cutting. It makes it stiffer and easier to maintain a straight line when cutting and sewing.

Sometimes I will use it again when I finish a top before I put it on the machine. Just depends on how much the fabric has been handled.

Really helps minimize the chance of sewing in wrinkles.

I like Best Press when I'm working with bias. But it does get expensive. Someone in our guild makes her own using a jigger of vodka to a quart of water (+ a drop or lavendar water for scent).

I found a "recipe" for Best Press on Pinterest using vodka, lavender essential oil, liquid starch, and water. IMO it works great and not nearly the price of Best Press.

okay best press is great, but you can make your own. search for the recipe on the board. i think it was 1 cup on vodka and a quart of distilled water.

I just goggled Mary Ellen's Best Press & I was given a web site that gave a recipe for "just like Mary Ellen's Best Press"
They gave some reviews & they were favorable. It takes about $15.00 worth of product & gives you 2 gallons of "Best Press"
This is the recipe:
1 tsp Essential Oil (for aroma only) & can be omitted
3 oz. Vodka (vodka comes from potatoes & they are a natural starch)
24 oz. Distilled Water
1 drop of Food Coloring (optional)

Put in a spray bottle & there you go. I am definitely going to try it & if you get bored you can always have a sip (leave out the essential oil though)

Anybody else wanna give it a try ...........................

I love it! Now I use it for any ironing I need to do. I try to buy it with coupons at Hancock's but will check Amazon, hadn't thought of that. I've tried other sprays from the grocery store but most have a bad smell to me. I used to use Magic Sizing on my clothes but once I used the BP, I don't buy it anymore.

I won a small bottle at a guilt show and really like it. my only problem is it makes me cough every time i try to use it so if you have any asthma or lung issues please be careful until you know how it affects you.

I, too, buy it by the gallon and love it. It doesn't stick on my iron.

I love this product also, better than starch.

I love it, but you can also stretch it out by diluting in 1/2 with water. One of my LA teachers said she uses it 1/2 str to get out the wrinkles on backings she put on the quilting frame before quilting.

I use it and love it. It works as well as starch and it doesn't leave white flakes on dark fabrics.

Add me to the Love It group. I bought a medium size bottle as a refill, but going for the gallon from Amazon next time. I normally pick up the unscented version.

I used it once and loved it. But at $9 for two cups I bought regular starch and dilute it. A half gallon cost $3 at Wal-Mart and I can mix to get the stiffness I like. I usually mix medium to heavy. The trick is that tou must wait for it to soak in the fabric and you don't get flaking or discolorization. So for $3 I get at least 2 gallons. And I must admit with this I don't have and problems with bias seams. One thing I do miss from Best Press is the nice smell.

i buy Best Press at handcocks with the 40% coupon, they only have the small spray bottle size and the refill size, i bought the spray bottle size so i would have a spray bottle to use with the refill size bottle , our joanns doesnt carry BP and handcocks doesnt carry the gallon size, i use this to press mine and hubbys shirts and my fabric after the fabric has been washed and dryed for the first time after buying it , then i wrap the fabric on my comic boards and put them on my shelf, but when i used the fabric in a quilt before i cut i use heavy spray starch ,it makes the fabric just a bit stiffer and thats they way i like it before cutting my pieces

I use best press and I love it, Plus it smells great

I have checked the local stores near Nashville. What store did you find it?

You can also make your own! Do a google search for a recipe . . . it contains distilled water, vodka and essential oil in whatever scent you prefer. I have made it and love it too!

This is the recipe "like" Best Press starch.

Mix together:
1 tsp scented essential oil (found in Walmart candle supplies aisle and they have lots of scents) Note: scent is optional if allergic to scents.
3 oz. vodka (YES vodka) LOL
Then add to 24oz distilled water in large spray bottle and shake well.
(Hint: Vodka is made from potatoes , a natural starch.)
..
Add one drop of food color per gallon (optional)

And another!!

If you like a fragranced wrinkle releaser, you may also like this alternative.

• 2 cups distilled water
• 2 oz cheap vodka
• 12 drops of 100% pure essential oil *
• 1/3 cup liquid starch (after testing I increased this to ½ cup as my preference)

Put into a spray bottle and shake to mix before each use.
If you like it, make a gallon as follows:

• Take a gallon of distilled water and remove 4 cups ( to use for another purpose)**
• Add 1 ½ cups vodka
• 72 drops of essential oil (or amount as is your preference)
• 2 to 2 ½ cups of liquid starch

* Be sure you buy the correct scent oil. It is sold by the candle and soap making supplies at Michael’s and is called “scent”. You do NOT want the type of oil that you use in the ceramic rings that go around light bulbs or the plug in room fresheners.
** Mark gallon bottle carefully so you don’t put it into your steam iron!!!

Last one, they are pretty much the same with a few tweaks!!

In a clean large jug, mix:

4 Cups of water
2 Cups of liquid
starch
4 ounces of Vodka
10 drops of essential oil fragrance

Many
quilters have questioned me about the Vodka. As an alcohol, it acts as a natural
preservative, but in addition to that, it will chemically mix with BOTH the
water and the oil of the scent to emulsify them together. I keep my jug right on
the cellar stairs and it keeps for a year that I know of, I hafta make more
after that because I use it up. I fill my little spray bottle often and always
shake it before using because the starch settles.
I bought the liquid starch
at my grocery store and it cost $3 in March of 2010 and I still have almost half
a jug.

Just FYI, vodka made in the USA is not made of potatoes but of grains. There are European producers that use potatoes as the base before fermentation but those are higher end vodkas and not what you would use for this application.

I suspect the reason vodka is used is because it is carbon filtered and thus completely clear and will not discolor.

I vote for the vodka and water. It works just as good as Best Press. Especially when you can buy a bottle of vodka at Walmart for 11:00. It will last a long time. In Canada we have to pay a lot more for the Vodka.

You should of seen my husbands face when he came in the trailer and saw that I was pouring Vodka into a spray bottle. I hardly drink so he thought I had lost my mind. lol

I've used it but just used Magic Sizing for the first time yesterday. I liked it a lot.

Thank you so much for sharing - never heard of this one before!

I love the results but for some reason it chokes me (maybe it was just the scent I had) and I don't have any respiratory issue. I can use spray starch with no problem. A quilt friend has asthma and can use only the unscented.

Suzy

I finally found Bounce spray! Walmart in our area finally has it! I love the smell of Best Press so
much better than Bounce spray! However the price of Bounce is much less expensive. I will probably stick to Best Press.

I like it better than anything I have tried. I buy it in the largest bottle I can find (no sprayer) and put it in a spare spray bottle. I have tried the vodka & water, it didn't add enough body for me. Tried cornstarch and water, it worked okay, but read that the cornstarch can draw silverfish and miller's moth. So I bit the bullet and use Best Press, my quilting projects are worth the expense. l

I love it, it is pricey though! I use a 'fabric finishing' spray I purchase at the grocers and it performs just as well.

How does BP and the vodka recipe compare to the stiffness of fabric you get with using starch?

I had never tried Best Press until I read about it here. Got a small bottle, because it was so expensive, and what if I hated it? Unfortunately, I LOVE it. I am looking into bulk on Amazon....