Before solemn events or holidays, everyone thinks about how he will look at this event. Clothing plays an important role in appearance. Some buy new wardrobe items, while others give their clothes a festive look by simply starching them.
Starch looks like flour, but its structure is completely different from it. It is used in food, industrial and domestic applications.
In the article we will talk about how to properly starch a shirt.
Starched clothes: pros and cons
Pros of starched clothes:
- If you regularly starch things, you can significantly slow down the process of clothing wear. Starch has a wonderful property - it thickens the texture of fabric fibers.
- Particles of starch attract pollutants. After washing, the starch is washed off along with all contaminants. Clothes, in turn, remain perfectly clean.
- The starch layer thickens during ironing, so clothes becomewhite.
- The starched shirt is almost wrinkle-free.
Cons of starched clothes
Such clothes have only one drawback: the fabric is poorly breathable. Because of this, a starched shirt is recommended to be worn only occasionally, for example, only for special occasions. It is also not recommended to starch shirts that fit the body.
How to starch things?
You can process shirts with any kind of starch:
- potato;
- rice;
- corn.
A different starching method can be used for each fabric:
- hard;
- semi-rigid;
- soft.
The method of starching directly depends on the concentration of the solution. Properly diluted starch mixture is what determines the appearance of the shirt after processing.
The following will discuss how to prepare a solution for starching shirts.
Starching thin shirts
Chiffon and batiste are thin fabrics. Women's blouses and shirts are usually made from this material. These materials are very sensitive to processing, so they must be starched in a gentle way.
You will need:
- liter of water temperature 25-30 °C;
- a teaspoon of starch.
Preparing the solution:
- In a small container, dissolve starch in 200 ml of water. It is necessary to stir it thoroughly so that no lumps remain. The result should behomogeneous mass.
- The remaining 800 ml of water must be boiled. After boiling water, pour the starch mixture into the container on the stove. Mix thoroughly.
- Boil the mass for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. The result should be a clear solution.
The shirt should be starched in the solution for about 15 minutes.
How to starch a shirt at home with a semi-rigid method
Cotton shirts are processed with a semi-rigid method. The semi-hard method differs from the soft processing method only in the amount of starch. If you are wondering how to starch a white shirt, then this method is perfect for white fabric items.
You will need:
- liter of water 20-30 °С;
- a tablespoon of starch.
The solution is prepared in the same way as in the previous method.
The shirt must be placed in this solution for 20 minutes.
Starching the collar and cuffs in a hard way
The collar and cuffs are sufficient tight parts of the shirt. These areas are best treated with a hard starch method.
For a hard solution you will need:
- liter of water 20-30 °С;
- two tablespoons of starch;
- 200ml hot water;
- 15 grams of sodium s alt.
Preparing the solution:
- Prepare a starch solution as described in the gentle method.
- Sodium s alt is added to 200 ml of hot water.
- A mixture of s alt and water is neededpour into the starch solution.
- Boil the mixture for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Infuse the solution for about an hour.
Cuffs and collar must be placed in this solution for 20 minutes. Then the starched parts of the shirt should be lightly ironed.
A starched shirt should be wrung out well and hung to dry. All wrinkles in clothing should be smoothed out. If you cannot straighten the shirt, you can lightly iron it before drying. You can not dry starched things on the balcony at low temperatures and on batteries.
A few tips
In order for the result to meet expectations, you need to heed the following tips:
- If you add a few drops of turpentine to the starch solution, the starched shirt will not stick to the iron.
- To achieve a homogeneous solution of starch, it must be carefully filtered.
- The collar and cuffs must be wiped with hydrogen peroxide before starching, this will remove contamination.
- Dry starched clothes can be lightly sprayed with a spray bottle before ironing. After a couple of minutes, you can start ironing.
- If you want to achieve a glossy effect, then add a few drops of stearin to the solution.
- If you starch your shirt with potato starch, you can add some s alt to the paste. So the fabric of the shirt will become glossy and will look spectacular.
- Dark shirts should not be treated with corn starch solution. So can youspoil the product - yellow spots and stripes will appear on it.
- You can not starch the places on the shirt where there is embroidery from floss threads. The starch will stick the threads together, and the embroidery itself will lose its luster.
- You can't starch synthetic shirts - you'll just be wasting your time. Synthetic fabric has a structure different from natural fabrics. Starch penetrates into the pores on the surface of the material, while synthetics simply do not have these pores. As a result, the synthetic shirt does not starch.
Now you know how to starch a shirt at home. And, as you have already noticed, starching shirts is not such a laborious process. Material costs are also minimal. All it takes is some starch and water. But the effect is amazing: a starched shirt will always look like new.
It is also important that this method of processing products will not harm your clothes at all, but, on the contrary, will prolong its life. Why spend money on buying new things when you can just spend 30 minutes to give your favorite shirt a perfect, formal look?
