Nurse Jan

So do I!! It's fun to do and they save a lot of money. :-) :-) :-) :-)

carrie glover12586

Faultless Starch was what I used . Cold starching will make the material stiff if you Iron it while its still wet. Cold starch not cooked

JBeamer

If you don't have time to iron all your fabric you can put it in a ziploc bag
and put it in the fridge for a day or two or in the freezer for long period.
I've never used the freezer myself but that's what Anita Grossman said in
her article about starch. I like to put my starched fabric overnight in the
fridge regardless of time. It helps distribute the starch more evenly.[/quote]

This is what we did in the OLD DAYS when everything was ironed. If you didn't want to startch then you just sprinkled with water, rolled clothes up and placed in frig. Worked really well. But now days I iron very few things. Much easier and better IMO.

madamekelly

I have bought 'bluing' in the laundry department of some grocery stores. Also try Bi-mart, they have everything.

ThayerRags

Starch - Last week, I got in a pair of men’s denim shorts that had a large tear in the seat by one hip pocket. The shorts had been washed and starched heavily, and were a challenge to turn through my machine to do the mending. I was afraid that I was going to break them! I felt like I’d been in a wrestling match when I was done.

Sugar - Years ago, back in the 70s, us young “cowboys” would put a “reasonably priced” (cheap, because we were always broke) felt cowboy hat into the bathtub, run water on it while we smunched the heck out of it to get the water to soak through the felt, and then applied regular table sugar with our hands, rubbing it in until it wouldn’t take any more. Then we’d give it a rough shaping and put it up on the pickup radio antenna to drip dry for a bit. While we were waiting for it to drip, it was a good time to rinse out the tub, especially if it wasn’t your tub. Then, we’d wear it to finish drying it, and every once in a while for the next few hours we’d give it another more specialized “shaping” to eventually get just the right block. Once it was nearly dry, we’d brush the excess sugar off with a shoe brush, and give it a quick wipe with a wet rag. Walaa! Your hat was formed for that personal look, fit your head like a glove, and would stay that way for a long time (if you didn’t break it first). Put the personalized outer band and the special hat pins back on it to make the statement that you wanted to be known for, and you were good to go.

Of course, your hat attracted every bee in the county, so you had to keep moving. And don’t dare swat at them with the hat or you could break it. And should you get caught in a rain storm, the shirt you were wearing was probably history. It would have lots of stains on it the same color as your hat....

CD in Oklahoma

jpthequilter

or use vinegar.

Just like our grandmas did!
A word about it, wash it all out when the quilt is finished
though, because buggy little critters like it eventually.

Greenheron

I was able to find bluing as recently as six years ago to use in a classroom project. I bet it's still around though I haven't been looking.
I wonder if dry starch in a box is still out there? Bleah, Mom used to make me mix it up. I do worry some about the old starch recipes making fabric attractive to insects if the items are stored. Mom would also starch doilies with sugar water--if that didn't attract vermin at my house the pups would probably slurp 'em.

suzanprincess

Boiling also helps the starch last longer because it sterilizes the water. When I make hummingbird feeder solution I boil the sugar and water for a few minutes, cool and pour into the cleaned-with-bleach feeder; it lasts for a week before it starts to mold, but if mixed with tap water it goes bad in a day.

luv2look

Thanks for sharing this *recipe*. Looking forward to trying it . . . sooner than later. <GG>

Glassquilt

mix in a spray bottle and shake to mix each time before using.

Sorry I didn't answer sooner - lost internet connection Thursday.