Home made spray starch

[Skye]

I need to starch some fabric that I have washed and have been reading about making your own from cornflour and water. Some just mix 1tablespoon to a pint and shake and spray others recommend cooking the mixture.
What I want to know what works best?

I would like to make my own since I dont like the hayfever I get from the bought aeresol spray starch that I have been using.
Any help appreciated

[temom]

Oooh, I didn't know you could make your own! Do let us know how it works. You just might have to try a few recipes so you can compare them.
I make my own laundry soap, and I love it! I also order melt & pour glycerine soap and make my own soap from that. It really cuts down on headaches. My next thing to do is find out how to make a scent free shampoo.

[sewingmom]

I love my home made clothes detergent also and find it works well for floors and the toilet. In a pinch I use it in my dishwasher and it works good also. As for starch I think you would use a recipe for thin whitesauce but add nothing but the cornstarch and water. When cooked, gradually add about a quart of water. There was, when I was a child and young woman, a brand cauld Fautless starch and it came as a box of powder that you cooked. I always suspected that it was just cornstarch with a fragrance, blue dye, and preservative added. The homemade sort from cornstarch will need to be stored in the fridge and will only keep a few days or maybe a week. I bet there is a recipe somewhere online. Mom used to starch my slips so the dresses would stand out. It worked well. Mom would cook up a batch of fautless starch and dip my skirts and slips and dads shirts in it. they were hung on the line to dry and then she would dampen them with her little sprinkler bottle with the metal sprinkler top. She would stick the clothes in the deep freeze or fridge and take one out at a tme to Iron them. Sometimes the Ironing had to wait a day or two and the freezer kept them from souring.

[bridesmom]

There is also a product called Mary Ellen's Best Press, it's a clear starch alternative that comes in unscented, or very lightly scented sprays. I really like it and find it doesn't do the sticky mess that spray starch does and it's not in an aerosol can either.

[sewingmom]

Laura I like that stuff also but its mot in expensive,

[lendube]

I've heard you mention the home-made detergent before. What's in it?

[temom]

Lennie, my detergent I make dry, as we tend to have mold grow in just about everything damp around here. A lovely thought, I'm sure.

The basic recipe:

1 part shredded soap -
1 part washing soda - NOT baking soda. But Arm & Hammer does make washing soda. You should be able to find it cheap in the laundry aisle, or you can pay an arm & a leg for it on amazon.
1 part borax - such as borateam.

Mix it all together, and use 2 tablespoons per load.

Since I have really hard water, I use 1 1/2 parts of borax, and my whites are actually white now, instead of gray!
Also, as before I switched to homemade laundry soap, whenever I wash permanent press, I use a scoop of oxyclean.

For the shredded soap, the smaller you shred it the easier it is for it to dissolve. And since I mostly wash in cold water, smaller is a must. Use whatever kind of soap you like best. You can use pretty much anything, or even the bar washing soaps that are supposed to be so good at getting out stains. I've used Zoats (unfortunately, it has a scent) and unscented castile bar soap. Next up in the line up will be the glycerine soap dd and I make & use (melt & pour).

[HeyJudee]

Now I've never tried these, but here are a couple of links to recipes for making starch that I've had bookmarked for a while and will use someday...after I finish the two cans of spray starch that I already have. One is cooked and the other isn't. If anyone tries them...please let us know your opinion.

Cooked
http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2008/05/liquid-starch-r.html

Non-cooked
http://thepatternbasket.blogspot.ca/2008/12/my-applique-technique.html - I really want to try this one as this lady lives in the Ottawa area & used to work in a local quilt shop. She is the designer of the pincushion & thread catcher pattern that I've made a bunch of times. But she uses a paintbrush to apply on applique...so don't know if it would work in a spray bottle.

Lots of other recipes on the web...just google "recipe for starch".

[LeapFrog Libby]

I am totally blown away by the fact that you have never heard of the 'real starch' before.... Spray starch is a relatively new product, and when I was young if something needed starch, then you had to make starch first, then use it, and then sprinkle the clothes after they were dry to iron them. and yes it took boiling water to dissolve the powder that you bought in a box. Ours was a red and black and white box. I think the name was ARGO. The box was similar in size to an Arm and Hammer baking sida box. After I was married (1959) I remember liquid starch in a bottle that you could buy at the grocery store, and just thin it down with more water. It came in a quart size.