Stretching a shrunken dodger?

[triatica]

In a rush of brains to the head , I took our dodger off to clean it at home.

Even with just cold water, but some pretty tough cleaners to get stains out, we are stuggling to reinstall it - darn thing shrunk a little in every dimension.

Anyone figured out how to re-stretch prior-shrunk Sunbrella?

[wchevron]

you could try soaking it in water, then while wet install it over the frame and let it dry on the frame.

[buckeyesailor]

That was gonna be my guess.........

[hellosailor]

Rewash in WARM water with HAIR CONDITIONER. That works by relaxing fibers, so they untwist a little (they twist and tighten when cloth "shrinks") and it works on woven cloth just as well as it does on hair.

Then put it on the frame and allow to sun dry.

[triatica]

Thanks guys - I'll give it whirl and let you know how it turns out.

[Pub911]

Have you removed and reinstalled the dodger successfully on a prior occaision?

If not, if this is your first attempt to install it, that is, you may find that you need to experiment with the sequence of installation steps. For example, you may need to put all the snaps on first before stretching it over the frame. If you do this with the frame collapsed, but still under the canvas, you can then open the frame while the canvas is snapped to the deck. Pulling on the frame tubing is much more reasonable as a stretching technique than tugging on a section of canvas to try to reach a snap point.