Friday 2 May 2014

First Friday of the month and a Starch Tutorial..

On the first Friday of the month I spend the afternoon with the Ladies at Borderland Fabrics in Jedburgh for 'patch and chat'.It's also a day when I deliver and pick up quilts for customers....I'll be back to share some quilts later .... it was Annette's birthday today.....




Kathy, Annette's very able assistant had made a wonderful chocolate cake for our 3.o.clock break....

It was as light as feather, just as good as Annette's cakes....I think Kathy may be after a spot in the Great British Bake Off.

As Annette is a 'blog hopper' and often visits I thought I'd throw in a little tutorial....


Quick Starch....

In the UK it's often difficult to get hold of a good starch....supermarket starch is often not as good as we would like and those cans disappear so fast. We can sometimes get Regular Faultless starch at that great american members only supermarket but the Heavy Faultless starch is difficult if not impossible to find.

Try this....in a spray bottle mix 2 cap fulls of straight vodka with 3/4 pint of water....I use water straight from the tap or you could use distilled.... which ever. This will give you a regular starch for laundry or patchwork

For a heavier starch mix 3 or 4 capfuls with 3/4 pint of water.....this works really well.

When I was at Souter Quilters a couple of weeks ago some one brought in a bag of fabrics to sell for donations to the group, I picked out a few small pieces of batiks, this is how they came out of my work box.


Once pressed with the vodka starch this is how they looked...all nice and crisp....

Why does this work....because Vodka is made from potatoes....potatoes are full of starch!

Please try to refrain from spraying straight into your mouth..... only to be use on fabric....lol....

Only use Vodka....no other spirit will do,....that's good Annette, that means you can keep the Gin for drinking...Happy Birthday...

9 comments:

  1. Wow! this sounds great. Are you sure the vodka doesn't "stain" the fabric?? Just wondering -- I just might try it :-)

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  2. There is no colour in vodka....that's why it is renowned for not giving you a hangover, just saying.....lol.....in my experience no staining...

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing, I've been struggling trying to find good starch but will definitely be able find vodka and make my own. Lol

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  4. Wow I have GOT to try this out!

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  5. Great tip! I have some rather “interesting” tasting vodka we picked up in Iceland that I believe has now found a greater purpose!! Thanks for sharing!

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  6. ROFL! I'm pretty good at not over-spraying "Hootch Press" into my mouth, but if you're doing a lot of yardage ironing with it, the fumes can still give a bit of a buzz if you don't have ventilation. :)

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  7. Thanks for the tutorial..do you normally use the lighter mixture or the heavier?

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  8. ROTFLOL Even here in the USA it's now difficult or near impossible to get spray starch of any kind...I will try this--definitely...but since I like vodka martinis as my drink of choice, it will be a difficult decision for me ;000 hahaha
    Thank you ~ ~ ~ Waving from afar Julierose

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Hi there, thanks for dropping by, I appreciate your visit and comments.....