What do you do with leftover water-soluble stabilizer scraps? Make a stiffening spray!
To beef up fabric for no-pucker embroidery, a fabric stiffener is quite useful. Bonnie likes to use Faultless Spray Starch to iron fabric both before and after embroidery. Other options include Best Press and Terrial Magic. You can also use scraps of leftover water-soluble stabilizer (WSS) to make your own.
Sulky has a great recipe for making your own fabric stiffener from 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.
Freestanding lace looking a little limp? You also can use this spray to add new life to existing freestanding lace projects.
Using a stiffener on fabrics makes for more accurate hooping which produces professional-quality embroidery with less wrinkles.
Do you save your leftover WSS bits and pieces? What do you do with them?
Debbie Henry
Sew Inspired by Bonnie
Buela Buela - March 02, 2023
Recipe is above it says “recipe” tap and it will take you to recipe
Avis Cooper - February 02, 2023
Bonnie Welsh….thank you for directing me to the “recipe”!! Somehow, I had missed that link. It’s waste not, want not in this situation. Avis
Bonnie Welsh - January 19, 2023
Avis—The link to the recipe is up above but I’ll repeat it here: https://blog.sulky.com/liquid-solvy-starch-recipe-uses/ It states to use 3/4 to 1 cup of water soluble stabilizer (wss). Hope this helps. =)
Avis Cooper - January 19, 2023
This information is great and just what I’m looking for; however, it would be nice if you provided a “recipe”. I see 4 cups of water mentioned but no idea of wss. Do you dry measure it? weigh it on a food scale? and how much alcohol? Looking for your answer. Thank you.
Debbie Henry - October 25, 2021
CMC and Patti – so glad you found this useful!
Debbie Henry - October 25, 2021
June, Sulky recommends 4 cups. Distilled water is preferred since it does not contain chlorine, iron or any other minerals .
Carol - October 25, 2021
Please provide me the recipe amounts of water and alcohol to WSS scraps. Thank you.
June Mee - October 20, 2021
How Much water do you use
what is wrong with regular water?
C M C Connolly - October 19, 2021
Thanks a big help
Patti Schafer - October 18, 2021
Thanks for the great idea. Will definitely try this out