In bulk,what proportions do you cut it with water? I would think you would want it straight to get the best stiffness. I have been using canned spray starch but find it a bit expensive.

LOL if you use it full strenght it will be stiff a a board! If you want it reeeel stiff go 1/2 & 1/2. I usually use 1/3 starch to 2/3 water, that's a good stiffness for piecing.

i use it 50/50

Is this stiff enuf to hold biases?

it's stiff enough to hold the roof up.

I also do 50/50. I want it to be board stiff, makes it easier to cut!

I mix Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch 1:1 with water, "paint" it onto my fabric using a large wall painting brush, toss the fabric in the dryer, and iron with steam. It comes out with about the stiffness of cardstock. It is *extremely* stable even for bias cuts. I use it this way on background fabric for machine applique also, and it is stiff enough that I do not need to use a stabilizer, even if I am doing satin stitch (no tunneling).

Some people spray it on; I don't know if it comes out as stiff that way.

Also, I'm not sure if there are other brands of starch on the market -- liquid or powdered -- so I'm not sure how other brands might work.

I'm a 50/50 girl, too. I like to sew cardboard!

I read somewhere that you can make your own out of cornstarch, anyone ever tried that?

I would use it this way.

i use sta-flo also, but i never thought of brushing it on. i use a purchased spray bottle. when i spray, i get spray all over the floor. then when i walk around, the tacky spray turns black from the bottoms of my shoes. lovely.

when you remove it from the dryer, is it still damp, or totally dry? doesn't it have wrinkles set in all over it that are hard to iron out?

I use 50/50 in a spray bottle (small bottle) and I don't usually get too much overspray. I spray it on and then wait for it to soak in before ironing, which cuts down on the white flakes. I like my stuff semi-stiff. I don't use steam.

I like the 50/50 mix too :D:D:D

LOL! My laugh for the day!

Thanks so much for the info AND the laughs. I knew I could depend on you. I do a lot of PP but never thot of using starch to control the biases of which there are many.

I knew I shuld have checked with you first before I put on a new roof. Starch would sure have been cheaper.

I am a bit confused. I have never used starch but probably should give it a try. If the fabric is stiff like cardstock is it difficult to press your seam to one side?

No. It actually helps the seams stay where you iron them. The starchiness breaks down a little as you handle the fabric, so it gradually gets softer. Of course, all the starch washes out later too.

I just let it get totally dry. It doesn't seem overly wrinkled to me, and I've never had any problem ironing wrinkles out. The only time I had problems ironing wrinkles out was years ago, when I used to prewash my fabric -- alway came out a tangled mess.

When I starch, I'm usually just starching one piece of yardage at a time -- background fabric for machine applique, for example, or fabric to be cut into bias binding. Maybe that helps?

I don't use this method for the fabrics I am going to piece together unless it is a flannel quilt or something odd that is going to have a lot of bias edges. For regular piecing, I just don't pre-wash my fabrics. They have enough stiffener in them already for accurate piecing. If I did want more stability in this kind of fabric, I would spray a little starch on.

I need to try this, particularly when there are bias edges. Thanks!

i was thinking yardage. like 3 - 4 yards. i wonder what would happen. it would still be mess, but it might still iron up well.

Mine always irons up well after starching. I do use steam; I think that helps.

ROFLOL about it holding the roof up. :D :D :D

If you accidently iron a wrinkle in, you may need a jackhammer to get that sucker out. :D I love a good stiff starch for a bias pc.

I didn't know they made a powdered starch. I always buy it in a can from the dollar store.

here i meant could i do yardage by brushing it on? after drying in the dryer would it be too twisted to iron out the wrinkles or would it still work? right now i do tons of yards by spraying as i go and draping it into a laundry basket on the other end. i fold in quarters, hand-press, then spray and iron. drape over and repeat. out of one basket, into another. using this back-breaking method i can do up to ten yards for a backing at one time. then, when they let me out, i'm ready to quilt again.

That's exactly what I do and it works fine. It is *much* easier than spraying! I lay the yardage out on my kitchen island and "paint" a section at a time, folding the fabric on top of itself as I go. The fabric is saturated by the time I am finished. I just throw it in the dryer that way. I have never had a problem ironing any wrinkles out with steam. I think the starch makes ironing easier. Also, there is no risk of scorching the starch because the starch is completely dry before I start to iron.

thanks for the info. do you then iron on your regular board? i have an oversized one.

Yes. I don't have an oversized board; maybe someday!

If you are used to spraying, you might want to use a 2:1 starch:water solution when painting. I would imagine that 1:1 sprayed on does not stiffen the fabric as much as 1:1 painted on to saturdation.

I'm a newbie and am attempting to make a flannel throw. My ? is can you starch flannel? Thanks for helping.

hahahahahahahaha!!!!

I usually use spray sizing for crispness - of course it doesn't seem to "hold on" I have tried spray starch, but it burns fabric and there are flakes all over the place!. Would the liquid cut in half eliminate that problem?

Scorching is caused by the starch not being dry. Same with flaking, I think. I pretty much stay away from spray starch because I *always* seem to have my iron too hot and I *never* seem to wait long enough for the starch to be completely absorbed into the fabric before I iron. That's what makes a mess. (Usually the burn is just the starch; if you wash the fabric, the burned starch comes out.)

Anyway, it's not the fact that I use liquid Sta-Flo as my starch that eliminates the burning; it's the fact that I throw the saturated fabric into the dryer before I iron. The fabric has completely absorbed the starch and the starch is dry before I even begin to think about ironing. At that point I can iron away on the hottest setting with steam and never have a problem.

You guys are so funny!

I wanna say I joined this board 3 or 4 years ago...in that neighborhood. One of the first threads I read about was starch. Prism has answered the exact same way to every starch thread I've seen here. I know, because it's still printed out and stuck to the said of my laundry room.

I followed Prisms directions exactly. I LOVE how stiff my fabric comes out. I use a 1:1 solution and I use Sta-Flo as it's the only liquid starch available in my area. I find it's one of those must haves right up there with a sewing machine and rotary cutter. My cutting is more accurate, my piecing is accurate. I started using it because I was worried about my bias edges stretching cause I was a new quilter then. I use it the same way on every piece of fabric I buy. I never know when starting a project which ones I'm going to be using for triangles so I starch it all.

These are excellent directions.

I'm pretty new to quilting. . . what do you use starch on and why? What am I missing? I am hooked on quilting and love to read all the "how to's" I can get my hands on, but have not read anything about using starch on quilting fabric. Help an old dog out who is trying to learn new tricks.

Thanks for the tips, Prism! I will print and hang it in my laundry room too!

I want to thank you too Prism. I never thought of painting it on and drying it either. I, like Butterflywing have been doing yards of fabric too. But, instead of making my own from liquid I was using the spray (which I am sure has left a fine coating in my lungs by now.) When I did make my own from the liquid I would find that I always had my fabric too wet and it took FOREVER to iron dry. Eight yards of fabric that you have sprayed, folded, ironed over and over and it still isn't dry enough will make you looney. Not to mention by the time you are finished you feel you could be eligible to join the circus because of all the contortions you've had to do to wrangle it over the ironing board so many times. Heidi

Question for the ladies that starch then put in the dryer. Does the wet starch gunk up your dryer at all?

It doesn't seem to. I haven't had any problem with it.

If you do a search on "starch" on this forum (see blue option in header), I'm sure you will find a lot of threads that discuss its uses. Starch stabilizes fabric so it doesn't stretch and distort while you are working with it.

I use the heavy starching described in this thread for quilt backings and for bindings. Starched backings prevent puckers in the backing when I machine quilt. Starched binding keeps its shape and doesn't stretch when I am sewing it on. I also starch flannel fabrics heavily before cutting if I am piecing a top out of flannel -- makes piecing flannel much more accurate.

Many people use spray starch as they piece tops. I usually don't, but then I don't prewash my fabrics and there is some stiffness in them from the factory -- enough for my piecing needs, anyway. Plus I am a real klutz with spray starch.

Flannel is the only fabric I prewash. I prewash and dry it *twice*! It's also the only fabric that I use the 1:1 starch solution on before I ever start cutting it. The starch stabilizes the flannel so cutting and piecing are very accurate. Without starch, flannel tends to stretch and distort while you are working with it.

I haven't made a flannel rag quilt yet, but would like to. Not sure I'd bother to starch flannel for that kind of quilt because cutting and piecing accuracy are not at all critical to the pattern. For regular pieced flannel quilts, though -- and especially if the pieces are small -- I like to starch heavily before cutting.