To Starch or Not to Starch....That Is A Question....

My blog is about a lot of different aspects of the quilt world.  Sometimes it’s about the actual quilts and sometimes it’s about the process and sometimes it’s about inspiration. 

But sometimes it’s about the basics, because if you can do the basics correctly, that will take you a long way in making any other technique look good.  We discussed thread at length in a previous blog and today I would like to write about pressing verses ironing, to starch or not to starch, and prewashing your fabric. 

One thing I have discovered about all three is that quilters can feel passionately about these basics.  So let’s just jump right in and stir the pot.

First of all, if you’re ironing your quilt, you’re doing it wrong.  The word ironing connotes that one is sliding the iron back and forth over the fabric to get the wrinkles out.  Darling, you want to iron your clothes (if people actually still do this…), but press your quilts and your fabric.

Why?

Ironing may stretch the bias, because you’re sliding the hot iron over the surface of the material.  Pressing is an up and down motion and it will dispense with any wrinkles, but it won’t play with your bias.

And here’s where your preference of starch or a substitute (such as Best Press) can come in into the equation.  So let’s just jump right in and talk about the first issue – to starch or not to starch your fabric. 

All fabric, whether you prewash or start sewing the fabric as soon as it rolls off the bolt, needs to have some starch or starch substitute pressed into it to make it sew better.  While the fabric off the bolt does have some “body” to it on the right side of the fabric as a result of the finishing process, the back of the fabric does not.  Fabric manufacturers won’t spend time or money finishing the side of the fabric that’s not seen on the retail sales floor.

So the back of the fabric (whether prewashed or not) needs a little help.  Some quilters will starch the entire cut of fabric and others only starch the pieces they’re working on at that time.  Either way is fine.  You want to starch the wrong side of the fabric. 

Lay the fabric on the iron surface with the wrong side facing you.  Spray the material well and allow it to sit for a minute. 

 

If spray starch is being used, let all the little, white bubbles dissipate before putting a hot iron to the surface. 

 

Then press the fabric with an up and down motion.   This up and down motion forces the starch into the fibers and gives the fabric wonderful body and makes it easy to sew. 

 

 

 

 

There are a couple of schools of thought at this point, and they’re both entirely personal preference.  If you’re not a “pre-washer” (which we will discuss further down in this blog), one application of starch may be all the fabric needs.  However, it’s not wrong to starch the fabric several times.  Some quilters prefer the fabric to feel more like paper than material, so they may repeat this process as many as three times.  It’s entirely up to you and what feels best and works best for you and your sewing machine.  I do think that if you are a “pre-washer,” more than one starch application is needed, since all the finishing chemicals in the fabric are dissolved in the pre-wash. 

So now, let’s talk about which is best – starch or substitutes, such as Best Press?

I use both, each for different applications.

 

Starch has been around it seems like nearly forever.  It’s been on the shelves of grocery stores along with laundry soap and bleach and sizing.  I use the regular starch or the heavy duty, whichever is available.  I use it to prep my fabric for cutting and sewing because in my 27-year quilting opinion, spray starch gives the fabric more body and works best for this step.  Other quilters prefer Best Press or other starch substitutes, and there’s nothing wrong with that. 

Indeed for years and years and years starch was the only player in this game until someone invented sizing.  Sizing is kind of like starch – it gives the fabric a bit of a lighter hand than starch – but chemically it’s very, very different.  The former chemistry teacher in me could get into hydrocarbons and such, but let me just boil it down to this:  sizing can play with the dyes and bond with the natural fiber make up in your cotton fabric.  And this is not good because that means all those wonderful marking tools that you use that either rinse out with water or disappear with heat or over time are suddenly faced with an entirely different set of chemical molecules than they’re made to deal with.  And that means the marks made with those marking pens and pencils may not completely and absolutely come out.  So leave the sizing for those folks that still iron clothes and reach for the starch.

Couple of cautionary statements about starch at this point.  First, don’t starch fabric you plan on storing.  The big appeal with starch substitutes is that, since they are not plant based, they do not attract bugs.  Starch won’t either, if you starch the fabrics as you use them.  Don’t wash, press, and starch the fabric and then store it for months before cutting.  That’s like putting out the welcome mat for all kinds of six-legged critters.

Second, don’t by the dollar store starch.  True, you may save yourself a few pennies, but you’re gaining a great deal of water weight (and I could make really bad jokes right now about water retainage, but I won’t).  The cheap starch is made with cheap ingredients and nothing is cheaper than water – unless you drink the imported kind.  Buy your starch at the grocery store or drug store.

Now Best Press. 

 

I do use and like Best Press.  I primarily use it when I’m doing Mylar applique or making bias tape with bias tape makers.  I like the softer look it gives the edges of the applique pieces and, since a paint brush is used for that step, I do find it plays better with a brush than spray starch.  Best Press is a little (okay, a lot) pricier than starch but it comes in different scents and it does last longer than starch.  And if you really like it, there is a “recipe” for homemade Best Press out there on the internet that involves distilled water and a trip to the ABC store for cheap vodka.

Let’s now focus our attention on the last question:  To prewash or not prewash the fabric before sewing.  Some quilters do and some don’t.  I do both.

Let me explain.  When I began quilting back in the early ‘80’s, everyone prewashed their fabrics.  Ellen Freeman, the lady that really taught me to quilt, instructed me to prewash all of my fabric, press it, and cut a tiny corner off of one side.  This was a sign that, if I didn’t get around to using the fabric for a while, that clipped corner meant I had prewashed the fabric and it was good to go.  So I dutifully prewashed everything, including light colors.  Most of us did.

Recently, because of the great breakthroughs in color fastness and those wonderful color catchers you could put in the wash to deal with colors that fade, prewashing kind of fell out of fashion.  There for a while, I was one of the few quilters I knew that still prewashed.  So I began to be selective.  My dark colors I would still wash, but the lighter ones I wouldn’t.  And this worked okay until I had a fairly light pink fade on a piece of white during the pressing process.  I immediately threw it in the wash with a color catcher, but it didn’t get rid of all the faded color.  If this had been a quilt I was making for me, I honestly wouldn’t have cared that much, but it was for a local library’s silent auction to help raise funds for their children’s section.

I was heartsick. This time I threw every piece of fabric going in that quilt into the washer and prewashed it.  Then I started over.

So now I’ve gone back to prewashing every piece of fabric.  Live and learn.  The only time I might not do that is if the fabric will be used in an art quilt, landscape quilt or other type of quilted wall hanging.  Those are honestly not washed often, if ever.

And I’ve recently learned a new thing or two about prewashing.   We have a wonderful man in our guild that worked in the textile industry for years before retiring.  He knows tons about color and color fastness.  He told us at a guild meeting that nothing -- not soaking in salt water or adding vinegar to the water – can truly “set” a color that runs.  The best bet to make sure all the excess dye is out is to wash it in warm water a couple of times.  This will get rid of most excess dyes.  He also said that after this, if the fabric still bleeds, to discard it or use it in something like a wall hanging that won’t be washed, because it will fade regardless.

Like everything else in quilting, there are no real right and wrong choices.  It’s up to you to discover what you like and what works best for you.  Don’t be intimidated, just try different things!

My guild’s (High Point Quilt Guild) quilt show is this Saturday, August 15 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Hartley Drive YMCA.  If you’re in the area, please come and join us!

Love and Stitches,

 

Sherri