sizing/starching fabric
 

The article for today is on sizing/starching fabric and talks about the difficulty of starching and ironing. That makes me wonder how many of you can remember when you starched and ironed your clothes? It wasn't considered difficult at all. We used to spend several hours a week ironing heavily starched clothes. They looked really great when we were wearing them.

I don't find starching fabric to be difficult at all. I find sewing and cutting unstarched fabric to be more problematic. I do remember my mom boiling water to dissolve the starch, and immersing all the clothing in the starch water. I have yet to find that good old fashioned starch, but love the convienience of the liquid starch concentrate.

i don't understand any *difficulty* starching fabric- my sewing room would be (lost) without my can of starch on the end of the ironing board...i've been starching fabrics for 45+ years.
why is there any difficulty???

I remember my mom starching clothes, then putting them into a pillowcase, and keeping them in the fridge. She took it out when she had time to iron them. The clothes always looked great. Crisp and no wrinkles-much different from today's younger folks' stuff! :)

The few times I've starched a block it was no trouble ironing
I rarely starch or size in my quilting
And, no one in my home ever used it when I was growing up. Which probably contributes to my lack of use now.

When I was young, my mother stayed home with my brother and me. My father was an over the road truck driver. My mother took in laundry for others. I remember her starching (Niagra) everything cotton, including the sheets. I also remember she had an old 7 up bottle (16 oz) that had a silver thing on the end with holes that she used to sprinkle the clothes with water before she starched and ironed.

i find that the difficulty occurs when i 'iron' instead of 'press'. with starched yardage, it's not that much of an issue. when it is a block or block piece, it is too easy to iron it out of shape. i must be more careful to PRESS, not iron.

This is my problem, I need to learn to press and not iron. I have started using starch more often then before and it helps when I cut.

Some brands of powdered laundry starch have been discontinued, but Argo brand is still available. Why not just make your own. 2 Tbs corn starch, 1 pint water, shake and spray. If you wanted the old cooked kind just heat to boiling while stirring, but then it doesn't spray well and you would have to dip like mom used to. If the smell is important to you, add some essential oil to it. Did you know that many commercial starches have formaldehyde in them?

When DH was in the military I HATED starching and ironing clothes. I completely disagree with the original statement "it wasn't considered difficult at all" - everyone complained about it. (And the new BDUs they got don't require it anymore...)

I starch my quilt backs though- it makes a huge difference in how they glide when quilting. I plan to start starching my yardage before cutting for the next quilt, to see if it helps me in piecing.

I don't mind starching things that are flat- I don't think it is difficult at all.

I do have a problem with pressing vs ironing. I guess I don't get it. Teachers always say be careful to not iron, and then when you watch them- they sure look like they are ironing to me...

I can remember my mom cooking the startch before she started her laundry and then starching what needed to be startched. Can't remember her startching sheets as she never ironed them, but usually put them right back on the beds after they had dried outside and ohhhh they smelled so good when you crawled into bed that evening.

Then she would sprinkle her starched items and roll them up in big towels or an old bedsheet to 'soak' a little while before she started ironing. If she didn't get to ironing that day or the next I can remember her putting them in the frig so they wouldn't mildew or get a moldy smell. I can't say ironing them was all that difficult, but it sure was work and I don't miss it today one little bit. Sometimes I startch my fabric with the spray startch and sometimes I don't. Most of the time I don't wash my fabric before cutting and piecing, know there are those that won't cut a piece with out it being washed. I use the startch if a piece has been washed as the sizing has been washed out by then and the material is more flimsy. There are some things about the 'good old days' that I don't miss one little bit, like ironing and the trips out behind the chicken house when it was cold. UGH! Happy quilting to everyone.

I just noticed I can't spell starch this morning for some reason. Not a good start for the day ha ha!

The only time I have difficulty is when I don't starch!! I just learned that to get some patterns right, it's the only way to go!! I just have to be careful with it as my husband is allergic to it.

I've always used starch and I just can't see myself not using it now.
It takes a while but it's so worth it. :thumbup:

When I was growing up starch was part of laundry and I was responsible for a lot of the ironing for a family of 6. I still use starch (spray) as I do not send clothes out to be laundered. For my quilting I use Best Press and I press blocks, not iron them. Love the Niagra Starch in the spray bottle.

mltquilt

It seems a lot of people write about having trouble ironing/pressing starched blocks. I think it may be easier to just starch the yardage after it is washed, while it is damp and iron it just like we used to do clothes. Then cut blocks out of the starched, ironed fabric - no pressing or ironing blocks needed. Just rapid ironing a flat piece of starched fabric.

I use walmarts sizing, its only 97 cents a can, and lighter than starch.

What's difficult? I buy the Niagra at the local store (I don't need the expensive stuff at the LQS) I spray, I let it set until it disappears into the fabric so that I don't get any white stuff on my fabric/clothes and then I iron. I love the results; the wrinkles are gone. It makes life easier if I'm doing triangles in my quilts. I don't understand how anyone can say it's difficult. I keep it and a spray bottle of water by my iron at all times.

I couldn't agree more. Questioned myself yesterday and decided to look on youtube and all but a few were ironing and not pressing. I did find one where one lady made it a point that you PRESS up and down on your fabrics and not use the back and forth motion.