I'm going to be honest, my first encounter with starch had nothing to do with sewing, it had everything to do with ironing my Dad's BDUs when he was in service. I then used it in ironing my JROTC uniform when I was in high school. After that it was for ironing my own BDUs when I entered the service, but because of a change in uniforms starch is no longer allowed touch our uniforms. So you can see, never did sewing and starching ever happen in the same time period in our house hold.
It may come as no surprise then to learn that my first quilt was cut, pieced, ironed, and quilted without one drop of any starch product ever entering my home. Oh the shame when after I had admitted that to a fellow quilter, she promptly scolded me and said I must ALWAYS use starch and not just any starch, I must use Best Press. I think I had a fleeting "why?" in my head but it didn't last long as she rambled on about how amazing this stuff was and that I must purchase it. Well, my arm had been twisted and I purchased it, and from then on you'd never see me without my Best Press, I certainly didn't want to be scolded again. So, before I go on, please let me say I don't get paid by anyone and these opinions are my own, no one who works for any starch company has any influence on this review/discussion. So back to the Best Press; it comes in all sorts of different scents and sizes, from a squirt bottle all the way up to a gallon. This stuff can be pricey depending on where you buy it, if you love it you know to shop around to see where you can get the best deal. Hey, I'm all about saving money here. I used Best Press exclusively for about 2-3 years, until I found and used some regular old Fautless Premium Starch in the big spray can that I found in the house. This is the very same brand of starch that I used to use on uniforms, and I was now using on my quilt blocks.
Why, you ask?? Well, I enrolled in the Craftsy BOM for 2012 last year and then earlier this year I enrolled in another class taught by Anita Grossman Solomon called Traditional Blocks Made Simple. It was Anita's class that re-introduced me to old fashioned starch. I realized that as I was still working on my 2012 BOM, that the regular starch worked phenomenally well on my paper pieced blocks. I fell in love with regular starch but I kind of felt guilty not using my Best Press. The regular starch just gave me a crispness and stability that Best Press didn't. There are some who would say regular starch is too heavy to use on quilts but if you wash your quilt most of that stiffness from the starch should wash out and the quilted project will become softer. Nothing drives me more batty then when my fabric isn't holding when I'm paper piecing or something has bubbled because the fabric didn't have that crispness to it.
Now, the difference between Best Press and regular starch is that Best Press doesn't have that heavy crispness that regular starch offers. Many quilters love Best Press for that fact alone, I really just use it on blocks that don't require lots of cutting, bias edges and are more simple in construction. They also love it because of the different scents it comes in, that can also be a huge turn off if you have allergies but no worries, they make an unscented flavor. I've used the lavender and rose scented ones (I re-use the squirt bottle) they are fine and the smell isn't over powering but I haven't found one that really floats my boat just yet. When I use Best Press on any fabric, 99% of the time it's on fabric that is going through it's first ironing after it's come from the store. I use it to soften the fabric and get the wrinkles out, but if I know that the fabric I'm ironing will be cut and have bias edges exposed at some point I start with straight starch, I have to hit the ground running with those bias edges because I'm the one at the end of a block pulling my hair out because the block went wonky after I ironed it and I didn't use starch from the beginning. I've learned my lesson on those bias edges.So, by this time you've guessed it, I'm a starch girl through and through. Well both starch and Best Press will always be in my sewing room because I will always have a need for both. I would love to hear what you use for starch if you use any at all. Thanks for stopping by, catch you all later.
Rachel
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