How to use starch when ironing a shirt
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If you want to know how to use ironing starch when ironing a shirt, keep reading!
*Be aware: Using ironing starch on your clothes may start deteriorating your clothes faster than they would without using starch
✅ Ironing starch
Ironing starch is one of those things that can seem, well, a little old fashioned, and so many people don’t use it as part of their ironing routine, even though it has some major benefits!
Using starch, particularly on shirts gives you that very crisp, professionally pressed feel. And it’s not only the visual benefits that are good.
Starch makes ironing easier, quicker, and when it comes to everyday wear, starch helps protect against stains because it seals itself onto the fabric, meaning its harder for spills to get through to the fabric and stain.
✅ How do you use starch to iron a shirt
We prefer to use a spray on starch. It’s inexpensive and easily stored.
- Set your ironing board up and get your iron to the correct temperature for the shirt you’re ironing
- The nearer you spray the starch to the shirt, the stiffer the material will become, however, starch in itself can cause stains, so you want to spray it at least 10 inches or so away from the fabric, at least until you get used to using it
- Start with the collar. Iron both the back and the front, undoing any collar buttons to iron and then doing them back up again
- Move to the cuffs. Iron these on the inside, and then move to the arms, starting with the side without the cuff opening and then turning and finishing with the cuff opening side. Button the cuffs up once you’ve finished both arms
- Work your way around the shirt, starting with one side and then working your way to the other making sure the materials is pulled taught over the ironing board
- When you’re finished, end by hanging on a hanger, buttoning up the top collar button and one in the middle of the shirt. This keeps the shirt hanging crease free until you wear to wear it
✅ Best spray starch for ironing
There are many different brands of spray starch on the market. These are some of our favourites:
✅ Best starch spray for stiffening
Layering your starch will give you varying degrees of stiffness. That said, it’s never a good idea to spray masses and masses on in one go, we’ve tried this and it doesn’t give great results!
The best thing to do is to layer it, so spray the usual amount and then iron, leave it to set for a few minutes and then repeat. It’s hard to know the end result with ironing starch until the shirt is totally cooled and the starch set, so it might take a while to be able to get the result you’re wanting.
