Originally Posted by Craftygirl

Hi, I fairly new to the board and I'm sure this question has been answered heaps of times but I'm not very good at navigating yet, so please be patient. I live in Perth, Western Australia and over here no-one seems to use starch the way you girls talk about it. Can you tell me if you just mean spray on starch or if you actually use real starch. I remember my Mum starching the collars of Dad's business shirts with some very gooey looking white mixture. I cant imagine that this is what you do.
Love the board. Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by costumegirl

Thanks for the info Featherweight!!! :)

Originally Posted by lotus63000

This looks like way to much trouble for me...
I have also remembered my Mom starching my Dad's Naval Uniforms and our school uniforms with her own home made starch when we were young. Recently, I've made my own by adjusting the recipe a little bit as below:

1 Tablespoon of tapioca powder
2 Teaspoons of corn starch
5 cups of water

Directions:
1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.
2. Mix tapioca and corn starch into 1 cup of water, stirring well often to prevent clumping.
3.Pour your mixture of corn starch, tapioca starch, and 1 cup cold water slowly into the center of your boiling water, mixing vigorously with a wooden paddle (I found when I use a spoon it holds some of the starch and it makes clumps so I use a plain wooden paddle I'm sure a strong paint mixing stick will work also) until mixed completely.
4. Let your starch mixture cool enough that you can stand to touch with platex style gloves, soak your washed and dried fabric in the mixture and work it with your hands to make sure all of the fabric gets wet.
5. Grab 1 end of your fabric and with your other hand grasp the fabric lightly and sliding your hand down the fabric squeeze the liquid out of the fabric.
6. Hang your damp fabric on hangers and allow to air dry.(see picture)
7. After dry if the fabric sticks to itself don't pull it, spray lightly with plain water and gently pull it and any wrinkles apart.
8.Press with your steam iron.

PS.... I'm afraid that my English would makes you all dizzy then I asked my DH writing for me. I would like to thank you very much to my DH, he's sooo nice and supported me....
:thumbup:

Originally Posted by SewSydney

Hi,

I am in Sydney and the spray starch that the quilters use in a group I attend is just spray on starch like Crisp (its the one I just bought)> I think we can also buy Mary Ellen out here but I haven't tried it.

I did see a recipe on one of the blogs I watch for a great starch but I can't find any of the ingredients over here, it was using a liquid starch mixed with something else - I don't think we use starch much in Oz compared to our American sisters.

I love this site and reading about all the different techniques, I hope you enjoy it too.