If anyone would like to add their own tips or excerpts from their own vintage manuals/journals, please email me with jpeg's and info and I will upload it to this page.

Starching Clothes (recipes for modern spray starch and old fashioned boiled starch can now be found on our new HOMEMADE HOUSEHOLD page. So, check it out.)

This is an excerpt from the Woman's Home Companion Household Book published 1950 (it is interesting to note that as the date of this book, which was a rebuplishing of the 1940's version with some updates, most American households still did not have a modern washer and often had to wring clothes by hand or with a handcrank wringer.)

How to Starch Clothes

1.wring out the garment as dry as possible and turn it wrong side out.

2.Make sure there is enough starch to cover, then immerse garment and press starch through.Just dipping is not enough.

3.Wring excess starch out. If this is done by machine, use more starch, since hand wringing is less efficient and teh machine may take out more starch in the wringing process than desired.

Hand to dry. When dry, turn right side out, sprinkle and roll up. WIth dark colored garments, leave wrong side out. They must be ironed that way to prevent white starch deposit showing on the surface. Strong tea mixed with starch will prevent the appearance of such white deposit. Warning, Do not let starched farmetns wait before hanging to dry, as mould is likely to develop.