I always wash my quilts as soon as they are finished, so not sure about long-term storage of starched fabrics. Seems to me a tropical climate would be bad, but other climates maybe not so bad.

My UFOs have never been eaten by bugs, and they are all heavily starched.

It's not the starch that causes the shrinkage. The fabric would have shrunk anyway. I always starch before cutting.

I bought some for the first time a few days ago and I'm in love!

I would't starch after cutting them anyway!!! That is asking for trouble with stretch and out of shape blocks. I am sure the starch did not cause the shrinkage...

Any cotton fabric cut small and then wet then steamed will distort and shrink. I heavy starch all my fabric before cutting. I have a Go and always starch before cutting with the dies. I don't starch pre cuts like Jelly rolls or charm squares before cutting them. My favorite starch is Niagara in the pump bottle. It smells great and does not flake. I always starch the back of the fabric, never the front.

I totally agree about starching before cutting. Learned that the hard way.
Bellaboo, I starch my jelly rolls all the time. I cut the jelly roll in half first for ease of handling. Works fine.

ROFLMBO I am so happy to hear that you have seen the light :D:D:D

I copied and pasted several recipes for homemade spray starch from other posts on this board. The (optional) lavender oil is just for fragrance, so it's very inexpensive (probably have cornstarch in you kitchen cupboard).


Homemade spray starch recipe

This is a great money saver and it does an excellent job.

Dissolve 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon cornstarch (depending on amount of stiffness you want) in a few tablespoons of cold water in a heat proof 2-cup measuring container. Add boiling water to make one cup, stirring constantly. Then add cold water to the 2 cup line. Let cool and use in a spray bottle.
Shake it every time you spray.

You may have to dilute it a little if it is too thick or builds up white flakes.

Discard after a week or so and make a new batch. You can also refrigerate between using to keep it fresher.

I heard of people making homemade spray starch and adding a small amount of clear vodka to help it last longer, i thnk about 2 oz of vodka to a recipe similar to this site:

http://tipnut.com/homemade-lavender-starch-recipe/
Lavender Linen Starch
Dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in 1 pint cold water. Add 6 drops of lavender essential oil. Place in a spray bottle. Shake before using.
Fresh pressed linens, nicely starched, and lavender fragrance wafting in the air. Nice!

Nope. At least I haven't been. I stated using starch just recently and by that time I had a lot of strips for my Omigosh cut already, some sewn together then cut into 1" pieces. So I'm still in a state of ... some of the finished blocks have NO starch, some of the finished blocks have SOME starch, some of the finished blocks are completely starched - but NONE of it was starched before I cut. I'm about to start the shoo fly blocks soon and before I cut those strips/pieces I'll starch the fabric. Then I'll really be in love.

Some of you have mentioned that starching cut fabric then ironing distorts and possibly shrinks the cotton. Haven't had either problem. Perhaps it's only a problem for fabric that hasn't been pre-washed? I pre-wash all my fabric.