Around this time last year I was in the sewing room a lot using a lot of fabric starch to get the fabric nice and crisp for sewing to get the best possible seams. After buying a couple of bottles of Best Press fabric starch (around $7.00 for a 16oz bottle) I decided that there had to be a less expensive way to get the results I wanted. So I called on every crafty (and not so crafty) gals trusty old friend Pinterest.
Typed in a few key words...
Starch
Fabric starch
Diy spray starch
Diy starch
And before I was sucked into a wormhole that has me completely sidetracked I found several home recipes for what I was looking for. There really are a lot some using corn starch some using vodka. I went with one of the many with vodka in it. No not because I wanted to sip it occasionally. But mostly because I didn't believe it would work.
I made a trip to the local spirits store and got the cheapest bottle I could find (less than $7.00 for a small bottle) and returned to make up some of this wonderful concoction the ladies in the quilting blogs were raving about.
Mixed up a small batch to test it out.
1 part vodka
3 part water
a couple drops of essential oil
Made a super small batch enough to fit in a 20 ounce water bottle.
Took this to the sewing room and went to work on some fabric.
What AMAZING results!!
Yes that's right it worked as well as any store bought spray starch.
What it didn't do:
It didn't stink like alcohol.
It didn't leave flakes on the fabric.
It didn't cost a ton of money.
I kept the small bottle of vodka in the laundry room and would mix up a small batch when I ran out in the sewing room. I just last week used up the last of that bottle. It lasted just under a year. Did you catch that? Almost a years worth of spray starch for just under 7 dollars.
I knew I needed to make up some more so this week I went to the store again and this time I picked up a much larger bottle (for 13 dollars) and made up a gallon of spray starch. I use lavender essential oil in mine because I like that scent. This gallon will last geez who knows how long and when it runs out I still have half a bottle of vodka to make up another gallon. So $13.00 for what will seem like a never-ending supply of quilting spray starch.
Hope you enjoy this tip and if you try the diy starch recipe please come back here and let me know how it worked for you. I would love to hear from you.
**this could be used for any ironing not just while pressing quilt seams. It works great on my family members clothes as well.**
Thanks for reading
always
tammyc
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