Things to do with potato starch

[attack_laurel]

So.  I have this standing collar, it's featured on my web site.  I took it out a month or so ago, and decided the lace around the edge looked horrifically plastic and modern, and switched it out for some vintage lace I have.  Then I got a mad idea and dug out some reproduction lace I got years ago for Bob, and actually went ahead and made him a

Comments

[trystbat]

Hmmm... but heat is supposedly how they set ruffs (standing & of course curled) in the 16th & 17th centuries. Otherwise, it's very difficult to get the starch to dry in all the gathers/pleats.

Back in 2008, I did indeed bake a ruff -- linen, using modern liquid Stay-Flo starch, baked at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. I hung it from the racks by means of large metal safety pins, making sure that no fabric touched any part of the oven. The only reason I stopped was that I'd edged the ruff in gold lace that apparently had some plastic in it. That started to melt ever so slightly & stink up the kitchen, so I turned off the oven asap. Minimal harm done tho -- the metallic lace uncurled when I ironed & set the ruff w/a not-as-hot curling iron. This is detailed & photographed on my website at www.trystancraft.com/costume but unfortunately I'm having technical difficulties right now :( That said, this ruff is still super-stiff & has held the sets nicely.

More recently, my good friend, Baroness Elena Edgar (lifeofglamour) has done many experiments

[dagonell]

This is wonderful! I'm the local chronicler, can I publish this in our next issue? -- Dagonell

[trystbat]

Elena's work would be better to publish, as she's done more with period sources. Please do message her thru LJ & tell her I sent you. She's been writing about this on her journal & teaching classes in the West Kingdom.

(My baking episode will be back online in about a day, so tech support promises; feel free to check that out if it's of any use.)

[attack_laurel]

I'm extremely happy with my how my starch turned out, thanks. It's stiff as a board, and works very well.

I can't bake my standing collar in an oven because it won't fit, and what I get from the stuff I've looked at is that it goes through a stage of heating, then a stage of heat setting, not necessarily in an oven, but by a fire.

I get that potato starch isn't period, but being gluten-free, it's what I have in my house. Wheat and barley are not hanging around casually in my area. :)

I'm also not looking to give people the nth degree of period; as you can see from the comment above, some people have problems with that, and alternatives for people without the means to bake their ruffs can be nice.

[sstormwatch]

Noel has also done similar using cooked starch, no baking. He says he hangs his ruffs to dry, outside usually. He also does the rounder iron-poked pleats, not the narrower pleat sets, so maybe that might be a difference.

I'm still too oven-shy to ever do oven drying again.

Lynn McMasters has done dryer based heating to dry her ruffs, putting it on a dryer rack that she has. But she stuffs them with papers (or was it foam rollers) to set her pleats.

Thanks for sharing about your friend's experiments with starches. I saw your photos of her starch petting zoo so I'm slowly reading her articles on what she has done. I so need to make a small ruff to practice setts on before I go back to redoing my big ruff.