It's so great to see all these wonderful tips! Here's another one about the starch situation. I googled 'powdered starch' and got the obvious: cornstarch. Despite growing up in a 'make-do' time and an extremely 'make-do' rural neighbourhood, I guess I'm falling prey to the trend to specialization. Here's the link and lots of the tips are wonderful for around the house, including the recipe for both spray starch and a 'soaking' starch. Hope you enjoy it, too!
http://www.hodgsonmill.com/tips-tric...-starch-tricks