I have a quilt made by my grandmother in probably the 1970's that has been washed and used (and used and washed...) with no problems. She made a log cabin using regular cottons for two sides and seersucker for the other two and it's fine. As far as stretching/ironing/shrinking goes, I have a favorite shirt from Land's End or LL Bean that's seersucker. I wash and iron it with no problems and have never noticed any shrinking or other issues.