Your choice in Starch???
09-10-2010, 06:51 AM
#21
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Location: Front row
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I've used them all from homemade starch to Mary Ellens. I like Faultless Lavender Professional MAXX spray starch the best. It's in a 20 oz pump spray bottle and cost $1.88 at Walmart. Niagara starch does not flake much at all so I use that for darker fabrics.
09-10-2010, 06:55 AM
#22
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Originally Posted by hoppyfrog
I may be the only one that doesn't like Mary Ellens. I like a firm starched fabric and I find it only gives a light finish. If you like it watch for 40-50% off coupons from JoAnn's. It's only available on line from them. It was also a free shipping special for over $35.
If anyone has a better way to use it other than spray as ironing please let me know since I have a gallon sitting on the shelf. Thanks.
If anyone has a better way to use it other than spray as ironing please let me know since I have a gallon sitting on the shelf. Thanks.
09-10-2010, 08:38 AM
#23
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Triangle, NY
Posts: 184
Be careful with starches on your quilts...I use MaryEllens Best Press..it is actually made from the same natural products our greatgrandmothers used..the regular starches you get today like StaFlo etc will attracked silver fish and moths and can eat into your fabrics in the years that come..you can research it on the internet and read about it..thats how I found out..that is one reason so many quilts of the new years (in the past 50) have not made it as long as the ones from a 100 years ago...check it out...I believe I first read about it on Quilter Unversity...but that was a few years ago..but you can check for yourself and see what is being said now...I do love Best Press thought..blessings
09-10-2010, 11:12 AM
#24
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Macon, Ga
Posts: 272
Try making your own starch. 1-2 tbsp corn starch (available at the grocery store); 2 cups water. Make this small amount at one time because it has a shelf life of about weeks. Very inexpensive and works really well for me.
09-10-2010, 01:55 PM
#25
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Joplin, Missouri
Posts: 1,058
I always use Sta-Flo, mix it half and half with water.. put it in a hand sprayer and keep on my ironing board.
I've never ever had a bug on anything nor any holes or evidence of anything, ever.. I've been doing it for years. I'm beginning to think that the starch/bug thing is an old wives tale..
I've never ever had a bug on anything nor any holes or evidence of anything, ever.. I've been doing it for years. I'm beginning to think that the starch/bug thing is an old wives tale..
09-10-2010, 02:03 PM
#27
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Triangle, NY
Posts: 184
This is why I said check for yourself...it might be an old wives tale for all I know for sure..but I did read it a few years ago on a well known quilt site..so I thought I would post the information just in case..blessings
09-10-2010, 03:00 PM
#29
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Front row
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I don't starch my fabric until I get ready to use it. I guess if a quilt is made from starched fabric and not washed and stored away for years it would attract some bugs to the starch. At least the bugs are getting some use out of the quilt, no one else would be.
09-10-2010, 04:59 PM
#30
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Port Sulphur, LA
Posts: 313
Originally Posted by pocoellie
I use the Sta-Flo and dilute 50/50, I mix in a spray bottle, spray the fabrics I'm going to use, then let it sit for at least 2 hours, then toss in the dryer for a few minutes or let it air dry.
I remember my grandma sprinkling the cloths with a coke bottle with a top on it and putting it in the fridge for ironing later. Don't know what was in the bottle, but remember seeing the clothes in the fridge as a young child.
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