Well, I've never heard of un shrinking... Steam pressing I think is your best bet. Hope DH is healing! Good luck
V.

Nope, you can't "unshrink" fabric. You can maybe stretch it out a little bit with steam ironing, but I doubt it.

This is no help now, but I wouldn't have washed the leaders at all, though I might have dabbed at the blood stains with hydrogen peroxide. It's not like the blood was going to transfer to a quilt.

Yes, my leaders have some blood drops on them - quite a few, as I'm pretty clumsy. I don't worry about them.

I think it's worth a try to get it wet - really wet - and try to stretch it back to shape. I don't think a steam iron alone is going to do it and the heat would cause it to tighten up again anyway. Cool water, stretch, block and let dry.

Peroxide is a miracle blood desolv-it ~ yes too late.
I am guessing the pillow ticking shrunk alot and got terribly out of shape. I would not recommend re-using it. It is very important the leaders be close to perfectly square and straight as possible, or the quilt backing will get loaded skewed. I recommend making a new one. They also need to line up. You will love the dead bar if that's the modification you are making. It takes tweaking to get it right, but once you do - heaven! :)

Thanks, everyone. Marsha, I was planning to make a new set...these are really out of shape.

Helen, he's fine. He doesn't even know what he poked his finger with! It was just one of those things that bled a lot.

Whatever fabric I use I will either pre shrink it or plan to never, ever wash them! I'll remember the peroxide. :)

Donna

I sympathize with the "bleed a lot" syndrome - DH bleeds if you just look cross-eyed at him, LOL.

I'm glad you're going to make new leaders. It's far better than spending valuable time and energy to try to make the damaged ones work again. They will never be satisfactory again.