Fabric on walls without starch?

15 years ago

Remember the time honored tradition of covering your apartment walls with fabric by wetting it with liquid starch and putting it on the walls like wallpaper? It went up easily and came down in a flash. Well, my son wants to experiment with his walls and I suggested this to him. He found some great fabric but I can't find starch that isn't a spray can! Whatever happened to gallon bottles of liquid starch. I can't find the dry stuff either. Am I looking in all the wrong places? Or do you think I can use some watered down Elmer's glue ? He wants to use my stash of fabric stiffener - will that work? Or is there some obvious answer I am completely missing??? Thanks---

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Comments (4)

concretenprimroses
15 years ago
Here is a link that tells how to make it from corn starch as well as some places that people have bought it. I didn't see a date, but if the shopping isn't current at least the recipe should work.

Some say that Walmart, Kmart and dollar stores all have it. I don't know.

Here's another recipe from Field Trips in Fiber:

Liquid Starch Recipe

I think I posted a few months ago about making my own starch. I use a lot of starch in my quilt piecing. I like the fabric to be as stiff as paper, especially when I'm working with triangles. The problem with my original starch recipe is that it didn't fully dissolve and sometimes left a white residue on the fabric. That didn't bother me because I always wash the completed quilt....but it drove my Mom nuts when she was here and we were working on our "Quilts on the Double" quilts. She and her sister looked through my Grandma's recipe book to see if her starch recipe was recorded. It wasn't. So a search of the web for several recipes resulted in this new recipe that works much better!

If you decided to make your own starch, only make what you can use in a day or 2. It does go rancid. I seem to use a little more than a cup in an average cutting session.

1. Put 1 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. While waiting for the water to boil, dissolve 2 - 3 teaspoons of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of cold water in a cup or small bowl. Keep mixing the cornstarch while waiting for the water to boil.

3. After the water boils, pour the cornstarch mixture into the boiling water and stir for a minute or so. The liquid will be clear or slightly cloudy.

4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

5. Transfer the starch mixture to a spray bottle and starch away! Throw it out after a couple of days.

good luck

kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Liquid starch question
writersblock (9b/10a)
15 years ago
Our local grocery store chain (Publix) still carries argo starch.
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melvalena
15 years ago
I still starch my hubby's shirts.
WalMart carries the gallon jug of liquid starch.
melvalena
15 years ago
oops, its not a gallon, its 2 qts.