I use starch usually Best Press which to me is very light vs some that you buy at grocery store. I usually use it with pressing my seams. I am curious about how all you "starchers" use it. I mean after you prewash your fabric do you starch the whole piece of fabric then cut the starched material? How do you use it when piecing? Do you lay pieces out then starch the pieces then go to sewing machine? Just curious as some of you sound like it really helps piecing?

I never iron the fabric until I need it. Then, if it is a fat quarter I'll starch and press the whole piece, if yardage I starch and press about a foot, cut it off and set the fabric aside until I need more.
I do fold the fabric out of the dryer neatly and sort of give it a hand press.

I starch heavily my fabrics before cutting and never have a problem with white flakes. I find if you spray on the back side, let it soak in or even dry before you iron it you shouldn't have flakes. This last time I had 3 yd piece to starch so I just put it into a wash tub and poured the starch over it to soak it, then wrung it out as best I could. I left it hanging over the wash tub to collect the drips. Not one flake while ironing it flat. I make my own starch using the Vodka recipe plus I add liquid starch to the batch as I like my fabric to be fairly stiff before I start to cut.

Try using Best Press next time. It works great without the white specks.

Always spray the wrong side of the piece with the starch. Then iron the right side. You want the starch to be drawn up into the fibers.
A much sharper and crisper finish, for sure. Learned that at a tailoring clinic many years ago.

So glad to read this post. I had purchased Best Press and it sits on the shelf, not ever remembering to use it. My next project is for a California King 'bedspread' and has many pieced blocks. I WILL remember to use the product, but when the quilt is finished, will it, too, be quite stiff? Thanks.

I love all the comments and suggestions, but I've always stayed away from starching and I think I will continue down that path. I'd much rather spend my time piecing... not quilting or starching! Although I wash all fabric before it goes in my sewing room, I don't usually have trouble with it. Just this one piece of black (and I already knew I didn't like that brand/line before I used it. I think someone gifted it to me because they didn't like it).

I gotta have my starch. And, if I spray too much or press before it's soaked into the fabric, it all comes out in the wash.

I love sizing and starch and have every kind that the store carrys- I use it all - if I get flakes, I just slow down a little. It all comes out in the wash, but sure makes my cuts more precise and my seams line up much better. I'm a serial presser if I have a block with lots of pieces - not so much if it's a simple one.

Best Press is the way to go. No flaking. I just attended a quilt workshop where some pretty big guns spoke. They are big time starch users because of the flat seams mentioned. And the fabric doesn't stretch. Try it again with the good stuff.