by Serena Smith

Starch...why do you need to use it in your quilting? That was the very question in my mind several years ago! In my mind, starch is that old fashioned stuff that you used many years ago to aid in the pressing of garments. I will have to admit that I have never used starch up until a few years ago, but now it is a permanent part of my pressing equipment. A fellow quilter introduced me to starch and now I can't press my quilting cotton fabrics without it!

Starch adds body and stability to cotton fabrics. It is a useful aid in ironing creases and wrinkles out of fabrics. When starch is sprayed on cotton fabrics, it adds stiffness to the fibers which makes the fabric easier to cut and stitch. If your fabric is pressed and starched before you cut out blocks or small quilting pieces, it is much easier to cut and stitch the fabrics together. This is especially helpful with angled, bias edges because the bias edge will stretch more. If it is starched, the amount of stretching is reduced when it is cut and stitched. The smaller the quilt pieces, the more advantageous the starch will be to you.

Think about small squares, triangles and other weird angled quilt pieces. Cut several 2 inch squares from a cotton fabric. Then cut the squares diagonally in half to form a right triangle. Stitch two right triangles together, along the diagonal, bias edge. It's tough; the fabric wants to move, scoot and flop. Now try doing the same thing as above, but spray starch the fabric before cutting or stitching. See the difference?

Starch is also useful when embroidering on lightweight fabrics. If you starch your cottons or other lightweight fabrics before embroidering the design, this will add body to the fabric, helping to prevent the puckers that sometime will appear around the edge of a design. I have done this many times and have found it helpful to starch my cotton fabrics before stitching, especially if I am stitching a dense design.

What kind of starch is the best to use? Starch is starch; it is available in a ready to spray can or liquid concentrate formula. You can purchase different strengths of starch so you are spraying a light or heavy solution on the fabric. It can be sprayed on dry cotton fabric and pressed with an iron. Or it can be added to your load of fabric in the washing machine as you preshrink your quilting cottons.

Spray starch is available in an aerosol can ready to spray in two strengths: light or heavy. This is a good choice if you are just going to be using a small amount of starch or just spraying pieces of fabric that are 1/4 yard or less. Lay your fabric on the ironing board, wrong side up. Lightly spray the fabric with the starch. Carefully lift and press your iron across the fabric. Don't try running your iron across the fabric or the iron will just stick and cause the fabric to bunch. If possible, press the starched fabric with the lengthwise grain; parallel to the selvedge. The crosswise grain tends to stretch more which can distort your fabric as you are pressing.

For larger pieces of fabric such as 1/4 yard to 2 yards, it is more advantageous to use the liquid concentrate starch. You can still spray the starch on the wrong side of the fabric and press it by mixing water with the concentrated starch in a spray bottle. For most projects, fill half the bottle with liquid starch and half with water. You can vary the strength by how much water you add to the starch. If you desire a stiffer feel, add 1/4 part water to 3/4 part starch. If you are needing just a touch of body, add 3/4 water to 1/4 starch. This is by the far the most economical way to go.

If you are planning to starch multiple yards of fabric, you may want to consider adding liquid starch concentrate to your washing machine when you pre-wash your fabric. Wash and dry just like you normally would and your fabric will come out with a little more body and stiffness. The stiffer you want your fabric, the more starch you should add.

From personal experience, I find that spraying starch on fabric after it has been washed is the most effective and economical way to stiffen my fabrics. If I want just a little more body and have many yards to do, I will add starch when I pre-wash my fabrics. I have found that I need to add a lot of starch when pre-washing if I need a lot of stiffness in the fabric.

If time is an issue, starching and pre-washing at the same time is better. Starching a section of fabric that will fit on the ironing board at a time with a large length of fabric can take quite a while. But consider this...why not plan your starching and pressing around a time when you can be watching TV, listening to the radio or doing something else at the same time? This will help the boring task to go by faster and you will be able to accomplish two things at one time!

Not sure that you want to spend the times starching before starting your project. Try out a few quilt pieces and see what you think. Try starching a piece of fabric before you stitch an embroidery design. Give it a try and see what works best for you. Although it does take more time, in the long run it saves me time and frustration when cutting and stitching my pieces.