I am new to quilting and have read several times that people starch their fabric. How is this helpful? Do you starch all of your fabric?

Particularly when working with fabric on the bias, starching keeps it from moving out of shape while you work with it.

For me, starching makes my cuts nicer, stacked fabric especially, the fabrics don't slide when I move my ruler.
For bias pieces, I starch very heavily, and don't have to worry about having ripply blocks :D:D:D

I starch all my fabrics. I pre wash it and then starch it. Starched fabric is much easier to sew, cut and pressing the blocks.

When starching your bias binding, do a heavy starch and fold in half while ironing. You will find this will stick the two sides together and much easier to handle while sewing binding.

Magic Sizing is good also. I use it because I live in an area where the starch could attract silver fish and other bugs.

Hello, I am scowlkat and I am a starchaholic! I probably have 10 cans around my sewing room including the ones in my trolleys! I love Best Press best but regular spray starch does seem to give a firmer hand to the fabric.

So how much starch do you use, I mean do you lightly spray or really wet it down, or would it depend on the fabric, more on light weight less on heavier?

I starch bias cuts heavily...I spray it and let it soak in for 5 to 15 minutes while inside a plastic bag...then sometimes spray again.

starching adds body and stiffness to your fabric making it easier to get accurate cuts, blocks go to gether (crisply)
some fabrics that are thin, haven't much body, or if accuracy is really important starching really helps. as far as
all the time? no...only when necessary.
i keep a spray bottle of water on my ironing board, when pressing i spritz with water, if it is not enough then i grab the starch, but one can of starch has lasted me over 3 years.

Its made all the differnce in my pieceing, well worth the extra step.

I have never tried starching before but after reading these comments, I may need to attempt this and see how it work :)

In addition to the above uses, one I've discovered is that when I have a starched or 'sized' fabric (Magic Sizing, which I use alot), any marks made on my top wash out so much better - regardless of the marking tool used. Please note I only use normal quilt marking tools, such as blue washout markers, Crayola Washable Markers, pencils, etc. But they do seem to wash out easily and I've never had one stay in permanently. This could be just luck, the fact that I would NEVER iron a fabric with a mark on it...or it could be the layer of starch/sizing I put heavily on my fabrics washes out easily and the marks on it also wash out. I don't know...just know it's so for me ;)

I do a lot of marking, in piecing maybe not so much, but certainly in longarming.

Debbie in Austin

It gives the fabric more fazazz and it is easier to work with. I didn't starch or even iron my fabric until I joined this board. I do both now. It also makes it easier to cut into squares and other shapes. Try it and see.

thanks for all the info.

I *love* this word! It's perfectly descriptive :thumbup: :thumbup:

After I wash my fabric, I hang it to dry (get really creative with shower rods and doors) and starch it heavily, let it dry and it's very easy to iron. I really like Sta-Flo so I can mix the strength I want, and it's lots less expensive then the already mixed starches.