Liquid Starch Recipe Updated

Do you often look at your blog traffic to see which posts get the most traffic? There are two posts that, by far, bring the most new visitors to my blog. One is the tutorial for the Chinese Coins Quilt and the other is the Homemade Liquid Starch recipe. Who would have thought that?

Holly, one of my recent visitors was looking for a very stiff starch for a balloon/string art project and she asked if my starch would be stiff enough. I didn't think it would but also didn't have time to test it. Fortunately, Holly changed the proportions and tried it and had a lot of success. I wanted to share her recipe changes.

Here's the original recipe:

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.

If you want a VERY STIFF starch for your project, Holly used THREE TABLESPOONS of water and THREE TABLESPOONS of starch and added it slowly to the boiling water. She said it worked great.

Thank you, Holly!