Points on Starching and Ironing.
In making and using starch have all the utensils and the water perfectly clean. Mix the dry starch with cold water enough to make a thin paste. Pour on this the required amount of boiling water, stirring all the while. To each quart of starch add a teaspoonful each of salt and lard. Boil the starch until it looks clear, which will be in about ten minutes. Strain it through a piece of cheese-cloth (it will have to be squeezed through the cloth). White articles should be dipped into the hot starch, but have it cooled a little for colored articles. For collars, cuffs, shirts, etc., have the starch very thick; for white skirts it should be rather thin; for dresses, aprons, and children’s clothing also, the starch must be thin, and for table linen only the thinnest kind imaginable should be used.
Always have starched clothes thoroughly dried; then sprinkle evenly with enough cold water to make them very damp. Fold smoothly and roll up in a clean cloth for several hours. In ironing, begin with the plain pieces, like the sheets and pillow cases. This will get the irons in condition for the starched clothes, which should be done next; and after these finish the plain pieces. Have the ironing blanket and sheet spread smoothly on the table and tacked in place, and have some fine salt spread on a board. Tie a large piece of beeswax in a cloth, and after rubbing the hot iron on the salt, rub the beeswax over it. Finally wipe the iron on a clean cloth. This process will make the iron clean and smooth. Starched clothes must be made very damp; other articles should be dampened only slightly. Starched clothes must be ironed until perfectly dry. In ironing, do the rubbing lengthways when possible,—that is, with the selvage.