Since my Chambers had no record of paper nylon I tried the OED
There I found a quote from the Independent of 19 March 1999*:
Each generation found natural means to improve their fabrics; a strained potato water to clean silk, a tealeaf rinse for linens, sugar and water to stiffen paper nylon petticoats.
The funny thing is though, that I certainly have no recollection of using sugar water on paper nylon – we must have known that it would be impossible to sit down on that. My memory tells me that it was only nylon net that got the treatment
* Even better, the article is available on line at Helene Wiggin: Historical Notes: The relentless tyranny of the sink
