Starch! First and last time user
#45
Super Member
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Central Wisconsin
Posts: 4,391
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?
And I like to starch a block with the Sta-Flo 4 to 1 after it is all sewn. What a difference it makes! I'm making a Scrapbasket quilt right now, and all edges are bias after it is trimmed. So starch is very necessary here. Diluted Sta-Flo does not flake and the fabric doesn't wrinkle after use. I've never had any trouble with bugs of any kind.
#49
I remember when I was a child, back in the 1950, my mother and grandmother damping down the clothes. This was done with a bottle with a special top. Made it like a mini water can. After sprinkling the item was rolled up and left for a short while to allow the water to penetrate the fabric. I use this technique when I use starch and don't get flakes.
#50
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Durham, NC
Posts: 851
I do use starch for stiffness and don't find that my homemade or name brand Best Press does the job of adding body that the starch does. I only starch those fabrics that are more "flimsy" than others, not every fabric and certainly not most.
Last edited by mhollifiel; 03-19-2014 at 05:50 AM. Reason: clarity
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