Crochet Hearts & Stars Garland (+ how to starch using corn starch)

Hiya! So now you know what the stars and hearts from my previous posts were for. I was trying out different patterns to end up making this quick Christmas decoration: 

For this garland, I made 4 hearts of the first model I showed you here:

Crochet Hearts – 3 easy models

and 4 stars of the second model I showed you in this other post:

Crochet Stars: 3 easy models perfect for beginners (and a bonus) 

This time, I made them with cotton yarn, so I needed something stronger than just water to block the shapes.

For the snowflakes I made a few years ago I used the classic water + pva glue mix (known in Spain by anyone around my generation as the “mejunje Art Attack”, because of the famous TV show. 🙂 It worked great, but this time I wanted to try something different. 

There are many ways to stiffen a crochet piece: hairspray, glue, sugar, specific products… 

I wanted to try the water + sugar mix but then I read it can turn your white pieces yellowy with time, and that it can attract bugs! (No thanks). 🐜

So, I decided to try the corn starch method! I had never thought about that, but it makes sense, right? I mean, it’s in the name: corn STARCH. 😉

After some investigation I realized everyone has their own recipe for starching: room temperature water/boiling water, 1 spoon/2 spoons, let it cool down/don’t let it cool down… I just improvised the easy way and I must say it worked JUST FINE. 

Here’s how I did it: 

1- Mix 1 dessert spoon of corn starch (commonly known here in Spain as Maizena) with a little more of half glass of water. Stir until it dissolves. 

2- Put it in a pot in the stove, low heat, and keep stirring for a few minutes (I don’t know exactly how many, I don’t know, 2 or 3 minutes). You’ll see your mix turns from opaque white to translucent (you can see the bottom of your pot). You’ll notice it changes consistency too, from liquid to something like light mucus. 

3- Let it cool down a bit until you can touch it without loosing your fingerprints. I poured it into a bowl so it would cool down faster, and because I wanted to show you my pretty bowl. 🙂

Now, you dip your crochet pieces in the bowl. Make sure it’s soaked properly.

4- Squeeze the piece with your hands and place it on a flat surface, with pins, so it dries with the correct shape. Let dry overnight or until you see it’s completely dry.

As you can see, I tried it also with one of the starts and one of the hearts I had made for practice. I wanted to see if, once dry, the corn would whiten or affect somehow the color of the pieces or the “look” of the yarn. The star was made out of mercerized cotton, and the heart was made with acrylic yarn. 

As you can see, they both turned out well, pretty nice and pretty stiff.

The white pieces came out nicely too. There is not much difference with the hearts, but with the stars, well, you can tell:

Cool! So, once my pieces were dry, it was time to hang them with a piece of yarn! I used a piece of cord I had from another project and wooden beads to make it weight a little. 

I made a knot at the end, inserted a bead and fixed my first piece (a heart) with 2 small stitches, one at the top and the other at the bottom. I guess you could glue them instead as well. 

To make sure all the beads were at the same distance, I used a very scientific method of precise measurement: three fingers’ separation. ^_^ I kept repeating the same, alternating hearts and stars.

For the top edge, it will depend on the hanging method you have in mind. In my case I just made a simple slipknot so it can adapt to different places.

I’m pretty happy with the results! Yei!!!

⭐️ 🎄 💙