Home

[Dinaki]

When it comes to iron clothes, I am awafully picky.

We the Greeks, iron everything, including the underwear.

This is the brand I use in Athens, in America I buy what I find at the grocery shelve

[RedTop]

To starch during the wash process, add liquid starch to the final rinse cycle.   My dads work shirts were starched this way.  

Mom only used the scratch made starch mixture for  crocheted doilies.  After they went thru the wringer washer wash and rinse, she dunked them into the starch mixture until well coated, gently squeezed the starch out, and blocked the doilies on bath towels on the ironing board until they dried stiff as a board.

[Abrowneyegirl]

---

@Still Raining wrote:

I still do linen table items the old way.  Also a few shirt collars and all cotton jeans if I want the waist to look good for a belt.

I use the cornstarch rocks dissolved on hot water.

First wash the item, then while still wet, soak in the starch, really dunk.  You can dry it a little or a lot, but in the end you want a uniformity damp item.  So spraying with water is sometimes involved.  Roll it up, wrap and let it sit a bit.

It can not be ironed with steam, it just needs a good hot iron.  They are a lot of work,  it so nice for a special time.

---

Thank you.

Now I remember the resting phase and the NO steam only a hot iron.

[Still Raining]

---

@Abrowneyegirl wrote:

---

@Still Raining wrote:

I still do linen table items the old way.  Also a few shirt collars and all cotton jeans if I want the waist to look good for a belt.

I use the cornstarch rocks dissolved on hot water.

First wash the item, then while still wet, soak in the starch, really dunk.  You can dry it a little or a lot, but in the end you want a uniformity damp item.  So spraying with water is sometimes involved.  Roll it up, wrap and let it sit a bit.

It can not be ironed with steam, it just needs a good hot iron.  They are a lot of work,  it so nice for a special time.

---

Thank you.

Now I remember the resting phase and the NO steam only a hot iron.

---

Good luck to you.  It is a process but does look good.

Of course you can use the refrigerator for more long term storage 😂 but you didn't hear that from me. 

[Mellyg]

I am a fanatic about ironing table linens and my.  Ironing sheets can be a pain, but is heaven after a long day.  I don't use starch. I do not put any of these items in the dryer and let air dry for an hour or so. Then I iron on hot. But make sure the items are damp. My linens and sheets stay crisp. 

[Tinkrbl44]

---

@Kachina624 wrote:

---

@SilleeMee wrote:

When I was a kid my mom would use Faultless starch in the box. She would use it on my dad's Army fatigues, hang 'em on the line and then press them after they dried, They were stiff as all get out! like cardboard, omg. They could stand up on their own...lol! I always knew when my dad was putting on a fresh pair of fatigue pants. I could here him push his feet through each pant leg...sounded like a loud RRRRip!

---

I was in the military in the '60s when we had to wear starched cotton skirts and a jacket in the summer.  They would literally stand alone.  However, the starch surely didn't keep them from becoming wrinkled.  They were a mess at the end of the day.  Hated those things.

---

@Abrowneyegirl 

She's right ....   Starch may stiffen a fabric but it's not a wrinkle remover/preventer.  Linen wrinkles .. a lot.  Try wearing more cotton or cotton knit fabrics.  

[Abrowneyegirl]

@Tinkrbl44 

This was my co-worker's point.  Americans use starch to stiffen fabric which makes the wrinkles worse.

She explained in India the goal of starch was to add body with flexibility-  NOT stiffness.

She could wear cotton linen all day and still look lovely after 10 hours.  I wear cotton linen and I looked (her quote) "like a child that woke up after sleeping in their clothes"  LOL and I did!