way back in the 1950s - Mom would just dip her husband's overalls in "the starching bowl" and wring them out and line dry
i think she used Argo starch - with Satina added to it.
Starch - put some in huge bowl - add enough cold water to get the starch wet - looked cloudy - added boiling water -then it got sort of not cloudy -
there probably were directions on the package for proportions of water to starch
could be made from runny to thick