It took me a while before I really embraced using starch to help with with sewing projects, but now that I have I find it very helpful, stick around to learn how to best use and when.

The paramount beauty of starching what you sew is that it helps fabric behave more like paper. Let’s face it in a lot of situations paper is easier!

What you need to know:

Do not use starch with your hottest setting, the starch will build up on your iron and leave you brown ickies on your fabric.

Even not using the hottest setting, you’ll still get build up sometimes, so remember to look at your sole plate every once in a while, and go ahead and get some hot iron cleaner.

Starch washes out, so if you don’t want your project to be ‘crispy’ after you’ve used starch to sew, it will go away after you’ve washed it.

Costco has a good deal on bulk pack of it. You can also make it a in spray bottle, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Situations it helps in:

Helps keep hems pressed before sewing.

Makes ‘pleat’ planning so much easier!

Gives fabric keep it’s shape while decorative stitching, like in my Machine Stitch Sampler.

Prep fabric for applique with Heat n Bond Lite. I did this in my Skeleton Wall Hanging & Snowman Wall Hanging.

Prepare Fabric for cutting on a Cricut Craft Cutter. I did this in my Elmo Shirt Tutorial.

You can applique with it and freezer paper rather than using Heat n Bond Lite. See a tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.

It helps eliminate edge curls on tricky knit fabrics, get the lowdown from Four Square Walls.


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Makes tricky thin fabrics like chiffon easier to work with, Four Square Walls actually soaked her chiffon in her homemade starch and then ironed it into dry paper!