We had them too. Mother would wash them by hand, starch stiff as a board. You couldn't iron them, they would be crooked and ugly. So you measured the curtain before you washed them [I think]. Starch them and put them on the needles or nails every half to an inch. They were beautiful, but what work. We couldn't touch them either. Woe to us if we did. Sure couldn't pull them back from the window. We couldn't put the window up and no air, and no fan. I don't know how we made it.