Why You Should Save Water-Soluble Stabilizer Scraps

You can use spray starch or Best Press to stiffen your fabric and freestanding lace but why not make your own stiffening spray from leftover water-soluble stabilizer scraps?

Sulky has a great recipe for making your own fabric stiffener using leftover WSS, distilled water, and rubbing alcohol. The rubbing alcohol is an option but eliminates having to refrigerate the mixture and makes it last longer.

Any WSS scraps should work, including machine embroidery toppers.

Chop them up into small pieces using scissors or a rotary cutter and store them in a zip bag or container until needed. It doesn’t even matter if they dry out because you will add water to dissolve them.

Some people like to add a few drops of essential oils for a bit of fragrance and recommend testing on a sample fabric to ensure there is no staining. Once everything is mixed, add to a spray bottle.

Using a stiffener on fabrics makes for more accurate hooping which produces professional-quality embroidery with less wrinkles.

Freestanding lace looking a little limp? Add new life to existing freestanding lace projects.

Debbie SewBlest

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