Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Update - Spray Starch

  In April of this year I posted about home made spray starch.  I am pleased to report that it works quite well.  There isn't any sticking or flaking, but I must admit that I usually am ironing with steam.  I find that I get a better result with steam, and ironing lines in just always come out just the way I want them.  By lines I mean what people used to do down the front of their slacks (I don't iron seams / lines down the front of my pants- they never even see an iron!)  

  The one drawback is that with all this HOT weather the nation seems to be having the starch may begin to smell a bit unpleasant and you do not want to iron in bad odors to something beautiful that you are making - so smell the starch first.  And yes I did add some borax to the solution to preserve it.  So now the starch is kept in the refrigerator with a nice label on it "STARCH".  It also washes out quite nicely without damage to your machine.  

  So give it a try - I'll bet that you have some corn starch in the kitchen cupboard - add some cold water to dissolve the corn starch - bring to a boil while stirring constantly to avoid lumps - allow to cool before funneling into a spray bottle.  You can use it  immediately, store any unused portion in the fridge and make sure that you label it.

  *Note you don't need much corn starch in the water - opt for less rather than more. A half teaspoon to a pint of water is a good start.  If you find that you require a heavier starching add only a quarter teaspoon more mixed with a tiny bit of water to the main solution.  Add the borax to a small bit of water - then mix into the boiled starch.

I hope that this was helpful, it certainly is economic. 

1 comment:

  1. Wonder if it would work in book binding instead of wheat paste. Interesting...

    ReplyDelete

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