Or add 1 teaspoonful of borax to 1 pint of uncooked starch for garments requiring stiffness.
Or mix 1 teaspoonful of borax and 2 tablespoonfuls of dry starch. Rub carefully in a small quantity of cold water and add enough to make cupfuls.
Starch with Salt.—Add 1 teaspoon ful of table salt to 1 pint of cooked or uncooked starch. This prevents the starch from being whipped out of the garments by the wind when drying, and also from freezing in severely cold weather.
Or add 1 teaspoonful of Epsom salts to each bowl of cooked starch while boiling. This will add stiffness and tend to prevent the articles from being scorched by hot irons.
Starch with Soap.—Make the boil ing water in which starch is cooked slightly soapy with pure castile or other neutral white soap. This will assist in producing a gloss and will also prevent the irons from sticking.
Starch with Gum Arabic.—Prepare a solution of gum arabic by putting about 2 ounces of the white gum fine ly powdered in a glass bottle or quart fruit jar and pouring over it 1 pint of boiling water. Cork tightly and shake until the powder is dissolved. After 24 hours strain through cheese cloth and preserve the clear gum wa ter for use. Add 1 tablespoonful to each pint of cooked starch while boil ing. This is especially useful for fine dress goods, either white or colored, as lawns, muslins, calicoes, and the like, giving them much of the body and appearance of new material. Less of the gum water may be used for the finished materials, as muslins, and more may be added for cuffs, collars, and shirt cuffs to increase the stiff ness and impart a gloss.
Starch with Sugar. — Add a tea spoonful of granulated sugar to each pint of starch while boiling. This as sists in giving the so-called domestic finish.
Starch with Stearin.—Add a tea spoonful of stearin to each pint of starch when boiling. This substance with the addition of bluing is sold under the name of " starch luster " at a much higher price than the stearin itself costs, and is no better.
Starch with Lard.—Add half a tea spoonful of lard or butter to each quart of cooked starch when boiling. This helps to give the soft or domes tic finish, and prevents the irons from sticking.
Additions to Starch. — Among the various substances added to starch for different purposes are wax, borax, salt, soap, lard, sugar, gum arabic, glue, stearin, and glycerin. Borax makes the starch more fluid, so that it goes farther, and also increases the gloss. Salt prevents the starch from freezing in garments; wax and gum arabic and stearin increase the gloss and give additional stiffness, and soap and sugar improve the gloss. These sub stances may also be mixed together according to various special recipes.
Special Recipes for Starch.—Melt together with gentle heat white wax, 3 ounces; spermaceti, 3 ounces; borax, pound; gum tragacanth, 1 ounces. Add 1 teaspoonful of the mixture to 1 pint of cooked starch while boil ing.
Or, to prevent irons from sticking, rub teaspoonful of lard and 1 tea spoonful of salt into the dry starch, and proceed as with ordinary cooked starch.
Or mix 1 teaspoonful of white soap run through a grater with 1 pint of starch while boiling.
Or melt with gentle heat 1 ounce of isinglass, 1 ounce of borax, 1 tea spoonful of white glue, and 2 tea spoonfuls of white of egg. Stir into 2 quarts of cooked starch while boil ing. This will give shirt bosoms a high polish.
Starch with Soda.—Add teaspoon ful of baking soda to 1 pint of cooked starch when boiling. This prevents the starch from whipping out of garments on the line, and also assists in giving finer finish.
To Apply Starch. — Strain the hot starch through a piece of cheese cloth and use while it is still warm. Select first the articles that require the most stiffness, as shirt bosoms, collars, and cuffs. A portion of the starch of course adheres to each, so that it be comes thinner by using. Starched clothes such as skirts, etc., should never be stiff enough to rattle. The garments to be starched should be nearly dry. Immerse them or such part of them as should be starched in the thick starch, and rub between the hands to work the starch thoroughly into their texture. Remove from the starch, squeeze out the excess, and rub once more with the hands to distribute the starch evenly through the mate rial. If this is not done the surface will not iron smoothly. Dry the arti cles, sprinkle them, spread them on a clean white cloth, and roll them up in bundles so that the dampness will be evenly distributed before ironing.
To Starch Colored Clothes.—Divide the starch, set apart the required amount for colored clothes, and add bluing sufficient to make the starch quite blue. Use a liberal supply of bluing for blacks and dark colors, but not so much for light garments, es pecially pink. This will prevent white patches of starch from appearing on dark garments.
Or dip black or colored goods, as lawns and calicoes, in sweet or sour milk and use no starch. Milk alone will give the desired stiffness.
Or, for delicate colored goods, use a simple solution of gum arabic in stead of starch.
Or rinse in dilute bran water or rice water instead of starch.
To Starch White Dress Goods. Thin white dress goods, as white waists and summer gowns, may be starched with cold raw starch. Dry without starching. Dissolve a heap ing tablespoonful of starch in suf ficient water to immerse the garment, dip it into the starch until saturated, rinse in cold water, wring out, roll up in a dry cloth, and iron half an hour later.
Or dry the garments, dip a clean muslin cloth into raw starch, and lay over them long enough to dampen them. After a few minutes press them with a hot iron.
For delicate lawns and similar fab rics use a solution of gum arabic di luted to give the stiffness required.