A hint for the footpedal of your machine -- to keep from sliding, put it in one of those trays for wet boots -- they come in a two pack so there is usually one left over -- my basement (aka 'the studio') occasionally gets wet and right by my chair -- the boot tray has about a 1" lip and it is rubber. The foot pedal is always dry and never moves
Mary

It's so great to see all these wonderful tips! Here's another one about the starch situation. I googled 'powdered starch' and got the obvious: cornstarch. Despite growing up in a 'make-do' time and an extremely 'make-do' rural neighbourhood, I guess I'm falling prey to the trend to specialization. Here's the link and lots of the tips are wonderful for around the house, including the recipe for both spray starch and a 'soaking' starch. Hope you enjoy it, too!
http://www.hodgsonmill.com/tips-tric...-starch-tricks

I can remember when my mother took in ironing. She would "sprinkle" the clothes, then put them in the freezer for awhile. She said this made the iron just glide across the fabric. I think it does!

Yes!! My grandmother used a 7-up bottle with the sprinkler thingy attached. I well remember going to her fridge for a snack but finding plastic bags full of rolled up clothes waiting for ironing :lol:
She did wash for a living - all with non-automatic roller type washing machine and no dryer.

My mom did the same thing with clothes. Sprinkling was my favorite job. She also had pants stretchers. I remember her and my aunts were so excited about them. She hung them on a rod behind the wood stove. They worked great unless you did not get the slacks on there straight.

I have to keep my husbands shirts ironed for work. He has over 75 Hawaiian shirts ! Not because they are required, he just likes them. I just do not understand wearing stuff that is wrinkly. Looks so unkempt. I guess I am just old fashioned.

Good idea...I'm in a wheelchair and I have thread and little scraps of material all over the footplate. So I leave all those little messes all over the house. Even found one of my cheater needles in the dining room, far from where it was supposed to be.

I have my mother's old coca cola bottle with a sprinkler type cork on top. Had it wrapped in my carry-on -- you should have seen the confusion at the airport --none of the youngsters working knew what it was! Took several old folks in line to convince them it was okay -- and it had no liquid in it. Everytime I look at it I can picture my mom using it.

I do this too! My husband mentioned it when we were first married and trying to figure out how to dry them. I'm only 46 but it works.

Mom used a Coke bottle with the aluminum sprinkler stuck in the mouth of the bottle. I have that thing around here somewhere. I remember Mom asking what I want that old thing for anyhow. And she had pants stretchers too. Medival torture devices if as a kid you ran in to them!! And the ringer washer - I don't know how many times I ran my hand thru the wringer with a bunch of clothes. But we had an electric dryer when the 5th baby came along. Us kids thought we were living high on the hog then!!

My husband had to wear white shirts everyday to work. One day I ironed all of them except one. The next morning he asked where that shirt was, told him it was still in the ironing pile and if he wanted it he would have to iron it himself and then I told him he could iron all his shirts from then on. Guess who took his shirts out to get them ironed.