The printing, designing, cutting, perforating, and stamping of Swiss lace curtains are done at central factories; the embroidery, applique work, and cutting out, at the houses of individuals. Most of the embroidery is done on foot-power machines, the needle stitching firmly a trail of soft yarn into the net. The hand embroidery is accomplished, not with the needle, but with the crochet hook and thimble, the result being in buttonhole stitch. The mending that rectifies the omissions and mistakes of machine or hand is done at the central factory, while for the bleaching and finishing there are special factories.

The tambour curtains are so called because they were once made by hand on the tambour or drum that is used for hand embroidery. Now, the foot-power machine is used, and tambour curtains show a design in bonnaz stitch applied on a ground of plain net.

The brussels curtains are made on much finer net with much finer embroidery stitch, and the design-enclosed surfaces are filled in with solid embroidery of still finer yarn. The very finest brussels curtains bear the name "duchesse."

Double-net curtains consist of one fine net embroidered on another, the ground of the upper net being completely cut away, so that the net remains doubled only in the field of the design. Hand embroidery is general on double net curtains, and for additional ornamentation, spaces are often covered with needle-made dots and tiny conventional figures (called hohl work).

In applique curtains the designs are in thin muslin applique on net with the bonnaz stitch. This is the least expensive variety of swiss curtains.

Irish point lace curtains are distinguished from appliques by their open-work effects - spaces where the net has been cut away and the opening bridged with cords or brides. When the cords meet in a knot at the middle of an opening the lace figure is called a spider.

Etamines have etamine instead of net for ground. The figures are formed in hand em- broidery, the field of the designs being cut away and the open space bridged in various manners. Etamine curtains are admirable for use as portieres in simple and modern interiors.

Those who are not afraid of rich color turn gladly to the so-called novelty Swiss curtains, mostly on colored nets, with colored applique and colored embroidery, and in the important period styles - Gothic, Empire, Heraldic, Renaissance, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Biedermeier, and Colonial.

To the braid variety of lace curtains belong those that applique the braid directly on the net ground as well as those that use insertions of Renaissance and Arabian lace made by tacking together with brides and spiders, etc., flat woven braids into motifs that imitate Flanders and Arabe (real) lace. Renaissance lace curtains have a bold and showy effect that once was very popular, but is so no more. Nor are the imitation Arabians holding their own. But the Marie Antoinettes, with their soft ribbon effects, often supplemented with real lace insertions, maintain a popularity that is deserved.

The variety of braids used by novelty curtain makers for applique by a machine with two needles that cleverly sews down both sides of the braid simultaneously, is very great. And the addition of cut-out and hand-work effects often adds to the laciness of the result.

Madras is a fabric with mosquito netting ground and figures formed by soft coarse extra weft threads that are allowed in the process of weaving to float loose where not wanted, to be sheared off afterward. The rough side of madras is the right side, and a distinctive feature of the weave is that the warp threads twist in pairs about the weft.

Crete, on the other hand, has a plain or etamine ground, and the rough or cut side of crete is the wrong side. Both ground and figures are much heavier in crete than in madras.

Madras comes in a wealth of colors, richer and brighter than would be permissible in a fabric of heavier structure. It is seen at best in a bright light, and the darker tones like the darker tones of velours are apt to look muddy when the light is dim. In rooms where only one set of draperies is to be used and where color is desirable at the window, one has to choose between madras, crete, colored Irish points, and colored fancy nets. Of these the madras drapes, gathers and pleats best and dresses the window most completely. The nets and Irish points should usually be supplemented by some light overdrapery. The crete shuts out too much light for use in most windows.

Muslins have their greatest popularity in New England where ruffled muslins were first manufactured about twenty years ago. In New York and Philadelphia fluted muslins are much used, probably because windows average larger here, and on large curtains the ordinary ruffled band is apt to look mussy. The only objection that is urged against the fluted band is the difficulty of refluting after cleaning. The ordinary laundry is unable to accomplish it, but all the better class cleaning establishments can.

The variety of muslin curtains on the market is enormous - from thirty-five cents for abominations made only two and one quarter yards long by thirty inches wide, out of the cheapest materials from the bargain counter - up to the finest Swiss grades of embroidered muslins at eight or nine dollars a pair. Ruffled muslin curtains are admirable for chambers. In country houses those with applique colored border and ruffle are frequently available. But to hang ruffled muslin curtains at two dollars a pair in the windows of fine city residences as they do in Boston is both undignified and inartistic. The finest part of the residence is properly the facade that faces the street; the draperies at the front of the house should correspond.

Even on the cheaper muslins, braids and Nottingham laces are often applied with good effect. Perhaps the best method of ornamentation is with the bonnaz machine. There is no objection to the use of real laces on the very finest muslins, and the effects obtained with muslin or with etamine ground are exceedingly good. But the more open structure of net shuts out less light.

One of the best tendencies of the past few years has been the increased use of plain and fancy nets, and one of the first to set the example was Stanford White, who draped the windows of his residence in Gramercy Park with perfectly plain machine-woven net, merely bordering it by turning over and tacking down about two inches of the edge. Even more pleasing and vastly more lacey and drapey are many of the fancy nets with tiny floral or geometrical figures woven in very fine point - thirty-two threads to the inch as contrasted with sixteen or fewer in Nottingham lace curtains. The texture is exquisite and there is less suggestion of imitation than in other of the machine lace products. These nets come forty-five inches wide at from $ 1.25 to $ 2.50 a yard.