So . . . before I began quilting, my DH and I received a lovely quilt for a wedding gift. I'm too embarrassed to post a pic, but it is a little larger than lap size and is made out of one large panel on one side and a panel w/a border on the other side. We love the material it is made out of . . . however, the problem is that we stupidly washed it without paying attention to the directions and it came out with a couple "L" shaped tears about 1-2 inches wide. Also, the quilt now does not lay flat (the middle is longer than the sides). There is not a lot of quilting (no stippling, etc.)--just some stitch in the ditch. Do any of you have any suggestions on how I might be able to repair this quilt? Can I replace the batting and re-quilt?

wow, that would be an ambitious project!! Is it machine quilted? Hand made by someone you know? Do you know them well enough to "fess up" and maybe they can help you?

The tears, I would put a piece of fusible interfacing behind and iron lightly. The distortion, I don't know.

And don't be embarassed to post a pic, we have seen it all!

If there is not a lot of quilting, you can take it apart. I would also probably repair using a fusible interfacing.

I've taken several quilts apart to repair, re-batt, and re-quilt. Time consuming perhaps -- depending on the amount of quilting, which is your case seems to be too little -- but often quite worth the effort. Go for it!

Jan in VA

It sounds like a time consuming project but I'm sure it could be done.

Sounds like the fabric was not prewashed. I'm with Jan - if it has a lot of sentimental value, it will be worth restoring.

Thanks for the encouragement ladies! Camera on my phone is broken anyway, but does anyone have any other ideas on how to repair tears? Also, if quilt doesn't lay flat (which i'm thinking is a binding problem) what else can i do, but trim material once i take it all apart in order to square it more??

What were the directions?

Machine wash gentle cycle, etc. vs. Standard wash in hot water (our usual cycle)

H-m-m sounds like the border shrank--can you tell? If that's the case just replacing the border would help.