Starching Clothing: Why And How To Do It

When looking for ways to improve our appearance and clothing style, many consider starching their clothing as one of the best ways to do so. Whether you are dressing to impress by wearing a nice cotton gauze shirt, blouse, or dress, the process of starching allows us to obtain a clean and crisp appearance with our clothes. While many people turn to professional dry cleaners to handle the starching, you can easily attain the same results at home. Learning how to starch your own clothes can be the first step towards achieving a more polished look and save money at the dry cleaner at the same time! Read on to find out about why we starch clothing and how to easily do it by yourself.

Why Starch Your Clothing

The main reason why people choose to starch their clothing is that it creates a crisp and polished look. Starched and pressed shirts allow you to present yourself in a professional and neat way, especially when worn under a suit. Moreover, starched formal wear such as dresses can stay crisp, wrinkle-free, and stain-resistant for a longer time. By starching your clothes, they retain their pressed and clean appearance for longer.

How to Starch Your Clothing

To begin, you will need starch. This can take the form of a store-bought mixture, or a liquid mixture you create using your own cornstarch and water. After preparing your starch mixture, position your freshly washed garment nicely over an ironing board. Do ensure that your garment is clean and stain-free, as ironing can set stains. Using a contoured ironing board with a heat-reflective cover will help you prevent unsightly creases while providing the necessary support for your garment to dry nicely.

Spray starch evenly over the garment. Use a spray bottle to apply the starch in a light and even coat across the fabric. Let the starch settle for a few minutes before ironing.

Ironing your starched garment can be done using the same method as an unstarched shirt. Check the fabric care label on your garment and iron on high heat if possible. Try to avoid the steam setting on the iron as it interferes with the process of attaining a crisp shirt.

After ironing the front of your garment, repeat this process with the back. After starching and ironing the back, hang it up immediately such that the starch has some time to adhere to your garment.

Tips for Starching Clothing

• Use freshly washed, clean clothes for the starching process. This helps you to avoid stains and unsightly patches that might occur during the ironing process.
• If you heavily starch your clothes, do soak your item between starching to remove built-up starch layers.
• If you need to starch black clothing, simply flip the garment inside out and starch the inside. This can help prevent white flakes from occurring during the starching process.
• Consider the strength of your starch. Some garments require a lighter level of starching, some require heavy starching to achieve your desired look.
• While starching cotton is great, avoid starching garments made with silk, silk-blends, wool, cashmere, or delicate synthetics.
• Only starch items that you intend to wear. Starch can attract bugs into your wardrobe, as it is food for several types of bugs. Alternatively, store your starched clothing in fabric bags.