Starching for Fun

Well, what could be more fun on a spring day? I have quite a collection of white cotton petticoats that I wear for Living History interpretation. I have always wanted to try starching them the way women did long ago. That means mixing the starch, and dipping the garments in the soupy, kind of gooey, mixture. Yup, this is my kind of fun!

I have several reproduction cookbooks that I use for food preparation when I work in Living History. In the back of many of these books you find other "receipts" (recipes) for household use. Of course, starch preparation is there too. Mrs Hill's New Cook Book (1867) provides this instruction:

BTW - in case you want to know what spermaceti is: it is "a waxy substance found in the head cavities of the sperm whale (and, in smaller quantities, in the oils of other whales). Spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head." So says Wikipedia. I say ICK. And, it goes without saying - SAVE THE WHALES! For cryin' out loud!

I used a more modern adaptation. This is a chart from a website by Lynn Ashley, published in 2005. She gives similar directions on how to mix the starch. I chose the volume of three quarts of water, and I decided on a medium starch level. This means, 3 TB of starch. I used the cornstarch from my kitchen pantry, most likely Argo. (Of course, I could have just gone to the store to buy liquid starch, but I wanted to try the mixing and cooking part, and, really, this is so much more fun!)

I put one and one half quarts of cool water on to boil. I added the three tablespoons of starch to the other one and one half quarts of water. After mixing the cornstarch in, and allowing the heating water to come to a boil, I stirred both together.

The instructions say to then cool the mixture.

See the wrinkly petticoats? Now how on earth could I walk around in these things in the 1870's?

I ask you! They need a good starching!

The next step is the dipping. I dipped each petticoat in the starch mixture, and after wringing out, laid it out to dry.

On Jennifer Rosbrugh's website, Historical Sewing, she says to be sure that the petticoat is completely dry before ironing. So, I did that! I just put them on towels on the patio table. Things dry pretty fast in Arizona! They were 100% dry in 24 hours.

(I love the information from Jennifer Rosbrugh. I took an amazing online class from her, and I have also attended her educational seminars at Costume College.)