Starching Detachable Collars

This thread is designed to be a collective resource for detachable collar starching. Feel free to share any methods, tutorials, videos, and tricks you've found helpful while making the perfect starched collar.

Let's get started, here is a short film from 1932 showing collars being starched at the Castlebank Laundry in Scotland:

[video=youtube;UJp3V9TL8xs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJp3V9TL8xs[/video]

This modern video shows collars being starched at Barker's Laundry in England:

[video=youtube;k0OOSOk4Ftk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OOSOk4Ftk[/video]

It's great that there are still laundry companies providing this service! Unfortunately these can be difficult to find depending on your location, which leads to the next option- home starching.

Starching collars at home can be difficult, you need to devise a method for starching a collar without the specialized tools and machinery used by professional laundry companies. There are many ways this can be done, I will share one method in particular that has worked quite well for me. This method yields a rigid collar with a nice semi-gloss finish similar to a professionally starched one. The only ingredient needed is 100% corn starch, and the finishing shine is achieved with just a normal clothing iron. This starching method is described below. Note that this method was created through trial and error, so if you find ways of improving it feel free to share.

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Instructions for Home Starching/Polishing 100% Cotton Detachable Collars:

What you will need:
*Your washed/dried detachable collars.
*Powdered 100% corn starch.
*Clothing iron and board.
*Collar mold (something to wrap your collar around as it dries- I use a small cylindrical sauce pan)
*Several clothes pines
*Paper towels
*Water spray bottle
*Hair dryer (optional to reduce drying time)

Prepare Starch Solution:
1-Mix an approximate ration of 1/9 powdered corn starch to cool water solution in a sauce pan. Mix solution until all of the starch has dissolved into the water, it will resemble milk at this point.
2- Put the sauce pan on the stove and slowly heat it up while consistently stirring the solution. In time the milky solution will start to become transparent and viscous. Keep heating and stirring until it is a hazy/creamy substance. It's now finished. Keep the solution warm to prevent it from hardening.

Starch Collar:
3- Place the dry collars into the prepared starch solution and mix lightly to saturate.
4- Allow collars to sit in solution for a few minutes as they soak up the starch.
5- Remove collars from the starch solution and scrape off the excess with your hand until it stops dripping.
6- Place starched collar onto a paper towel sheet and lightly dab/press the surface with the towel to remove the heavy starch coating.

Iron Collar:
7- right after step 6 take the collar to the ironing board and smooth it out with your finger tips to remove any large wrinkles between the two fabric layers.
8- Set the clothing iron to its lowest setting, hot enough to boil water but not so hot that you risk scorching the collar.
9- Right before ironing the collar quickly spray the collar with water to create a layer of pure water separating the hot iron from the starch solution. You don't want to soak the collar through, just wet the top surface. This will allow the iron to smooth the collar without contacting the starch solution, which would cause peeling of the starch.
10- Quickly slide the iron, point first, across the collar lengthwise- while moving the iron across the collar twist it side to side so that the leading point moves up and down across the collar's height. This is important, as simply sliding the iron across the collar will cause it to bunch up. If done properly you will get a perfectly smooth collar, it may take several tries to get a feel for it.
11- Now repeat steps 9 and 10 moving in the opposite direction across the collar. It is important to spray the collar between each iron pass to prevent peeling of the starch.
12- Flip the collar over and repeat these ironing steps until the collar is perfectly smooth.
13- Finish ironing with the collar's outer (visible) surface exposed for the polishing steps. Make sure you clean off any starch residue on the iron before polishing the collar.

Polishing:
14- With the collar sitting smooth on the ironing board allow the outer surface to dry completely. The collar does not need to dry out completely, only the exposed surface should be dry to the touch. I use a hair dryer to speed up this process, it only take several minutes. If you iron the collar before the outer surface has dried the starch will peel and flake.
15- Set the iron to its maximum heat setting and turn on the steam.
16- Firmly slide the iron across the collar lengthwise while steaming lightly. Pass the iron straight across this time, since the collar is already smooth the twisting motion is not necessary.
17- Continually pass the iron over the collar lengthwise with sufficient pressure and light steam. The collar should be developing a nice glossy finish with each pass. Press very hard with the iron and concentrate the pressure towards the back (to prevent snagging the fabric at the front of the iron).
18- Once a satisfactory gloss has been acquired turn off the iron's steam and pass the iron over the collar several more times to dry off the polished surface. (don't dry the collar through to the other side, ONLY dry the top polished surface.)

Shaping the Collar:
18- Now flip the collar over (the polished side is now facing the ironing board). If you accidentally dried the collar out through to the other side in step 18 simply mist the unpolished side with a spray bottle to wet it again. Just don't allow the polished side to get wet or else the shine will be lost.
19- Lightly pass the iron over the unpolished side with light steam to heat it up, then fold the inner band up along the fold line (you may need to use the edge of a ruler to create a crisp fold depending on how the collar is made).
20- Again lightly pass the iron over the collar several more times to press down the fold and heat it up once more for the curling step.
21- With the collar still steaming from the iron place the collar mold (small saucepan) at the center of the folded collar and pull the ends up around the cylinder.
22- Now clamp the collar into place on the collar mold with the clothes pins, secure them on the collar ends to prevent clamping on the smooth turndown fold.
23- Wait approximately 24 hours for the collar to completely dry.
24- After the collar has dried out completely it can be gently peeled off the collar mold.

It is now finished and ready for use!

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Thanks, Yesteryear, for these videos. Goes to show how machine- and labor-intensive it was/is, and all for small pieces of cloth!

In your instructions you mention dipping the collars into the starch solution only until they're damp; I've read elsewhere that some makers soak 'em for 24 hours; do you think the amount of time makes much difference?

Bruce

Thanks,

BruSwain said:

In your instructions you mention dipping the collars into the starch solution only until they're damp; I've read elsewhere that some makers soak 'em for 24 hours; do you think the amount of time makes much difference?

Bruce

Click to expand...

Well, this isn't exactly what I meant. I said "allow collars to sit in solution for a few minutes as they soak up the starch" so that when you take them out of the starch solution they should be thoroughly saturated. I also stir and shake them around in the solution so they can soak it up even better.

I personally don't think it will make much difference how long you let them sit after they have become saturated, but it wouldn't hurt to experiment.

Here is another tutorial on collar starching done by Mark Collins. These are for clerical collars, but the same process should apply here:

[video=youtube;yilarp07ALk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yilarp07ALk[/video]

I tried this method at one point. It worked well, but the finished collars are flat rather than rounded. This caused them to crease a bit when wrapping it around the neck or putting it into a collar box, which I personally didn't like. I'm just putting it on here as another method to consider.

I attempted to starch and polish my collars a couple of time, with moderate success. The main problem is while polishing the collars I scorch the outer edges slightly. Since the edges are thicker than the body of the collar, the majority of the pressure is on the edge. How do I solve this problem? My only thought is that I need more padding on the ironing board. Does anyone have another solution?

BR Gordon said:

I attempted to starch and polish my collars a couple of time, with moderate success. The main problem is while polishing the collars I scorch the outer edges slightly. Since the edges are thicker than the body of the collar, the majority of the pressure is on the edge. How do I solve this problem? My only thought is that I need more padding on the ironing board. Does anyone have another solution?

Click to expand...

Try putting a thin cloth (e.g., flour sack towel) over the collar when ironing at high heat setting. No promises, but it should help.

Some of the old starched collars especially the winged dress ones have so much starch still in the that several washes are needed to get all the old stuff out!

BruSwain said:

Try putting a thin cloth (e.g., flour sack towel) over the collar when ironing at high heat setting. No promises, but it should help.

Click to expand...

Having a thin cloth to protect the collar will not allow a proper polish to be applied. I believe that I've solved the scotching problem. I'm working on my wing collars and, as Esteban mentioned, they require a lot of starch. I'm attempting to get enough starch into the collar. I'm confident that the next collar will be satisfactory.

esteban68 said:

Some of the old starched collars especially the winged dress ones have so much starch still in the that several washes are needed to get all the old stuff out!

Click to expand...

I've got a turn-down collar that I have NEVER been able to get the starch out of. It's like the ghost of the previous launderer lives on in the damn thing!

I have a similar one like it's full of semolina!

Haha!

Recently found on eBay nine vintage Slidewell collars, new old stock, "Newmarket" model. Since never used they were in great condition but as is typical with these had some yellowing due to age. I sent them to Barker's (Bournemouth, U.K) after some email correspondence with them suggesting their process would restore the collars to whiteness. Received them today and Barker's did a top-notch job on them and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. The cost was not onerous, about $65.

So here's a shout-out for Barker's to any Loungeniks who like me wear detachable collars but haven't the patience (or skill) to launder and starch 'em ourselves.

BruSwain said:

The cost was not onerous, about $65.

So here's a shout-out for Barker's to any Loungeniks who like me wear detachable collars but haven't the patience (or skill) to launder and starch 'em ourselves.

Click to expand...

Did the $65 include the cost of posting both ways?

BR Gordon said:

Did the $65 include the cost of posting both ways?

Click to expand...

I just checked pounds to dollars and I was off by about ten bucks, so it came to around $75, which included return shipping. It ran about $17 to mail the collars from the U.S. to the U.K. This venture wasn't necessarily cheap but I don't think unreasonable, especially considering I'll get a lot of mileage out of nine collars. They're worn only occasionally and it could literally be years until I'll need to have them laundered again.

I finally achieved something acceptable, not perfect, but something I will wear.

I followed the instructions above but my collars do not become really stiff. What might be the problem here?

I have had good success with starching collars with plain laundry starch (rice starch would probably work better) mixed with cold water and a pea-sized lump of borax dissolved in some hot water from the tap.

The important thing I have found is that the collar must not have any fusible interfacing. The fusible glue prevents the starch from properly gluing the plies together and laminating into one single thickness. The lamination of the layers is what provides the classic stiffness and rigidity.

Note that RAW starch should be used (as seen in the Barker laundry video). Raw starch is a thin milky liquid, not clear and thick. It is very easy to apply and to wring out, like water really, and doesn't leave goop everywhere. Also with only a few minutes of drying in the towel, it can be ironed, although probably leaving for longer would be better.

This is my process :

1. Ensure the articles are clean, dry and clean of starch. Generally, a soaking in hot water overnight, a brisk rubbing and a run in the washing machine will be sufficient to remove the starch.
2. Mix a heaped dessertspoon of starch with a pint of cold water in a bucket.
3. Mix a teaspoon of borax with a small quantity of boiling water to dissolve, and combine with the starch.
4. Add cold water until the starch water is like skim milk. Some bluing may be added.
5. Soak the dry articles in the starch, agitating them and rubbing gently. They may be left for a few minutes but ensure that the starch does not settle. Professional laundries have rotating drums but these are not common at home.
6. Remove the articles and gently wring to remove water.
7. Smooth out the articles and lay them upon a towel, rolling it up to dry. This can be from a minute to several hours; it doesn't really matter in my experience.
8. When still damp, iron with a hot iron.

Articles should always be ironed flat on both sides on a lightly padded but firm surface taking care to laminate the plies together. No steam should be used. Then they should be firmly pressed on the wrong side before being glossed on a hard surface with the heel of the iron, making sure that any moisture condensing underneath is wiped off.

Delamination can be checked by curving the article. If any ripples form, there has been delamination. Minor delamination may be cured by dampening the area with the starch water and then ironing again with great pressure. However, serious delamination can only be rectified by starching afresh.


(Bottom is ironed correctly. The top collar was not starched with enough starch and the plies have delaminated, showing wrinkles.)

Turned collars should be turned when the body is glossed and dry but the fold line is still soft. Often the buttonholes need longer to dry so it is best to iron them a bit longer. Care must be taken if the fold line is stiff, and dampening of the fold line with starch water may be required.


(The collar naturally takes on a slightly curved shape)

After turning, curve gently into a rounded shape and allow to dry. The wings of winged collars may be folded by dampening the fold line and then ironing the crease over an edge. There is usually no need for a mould. The round former used by Barkers is actually a fold ironer, to iron and gloss the fold line. If desired, this could be done with a steel tube a uniform thickness with one end rounded, ironing over the curve.

Starched articles should be left to dry for a day or two before use so as to achieve the greatest stiffness.


(Completed collar. The seams was still slightly damp when I folded it, hence the minor delamination on the left).

Edit : It is possible to stiffly starch fused interfaced collars but either they delaminate and aren't stiff like plastic, or the starching is weak and the collar creases very easily. Collars should have one or two plies of coarser linen or cotton, but I've successfully starched unlined summer linen shirt collars and cuffs to great effect.