I bought a canvas tent the other week in preparation for my week in the sub tropics. One aspect of the instructions that came with it was to wet it down and allow it to dry - three times. The reason is to shrink the canvas and close the weave to make it waterproof.
Now I have taken to putting 12 oz canvas into the sleeves of my puppets. This provides stiffness, giving body to the arms but also allows for the fingers to grip props, unlike card board or really stiff leather. I got the idea from those Roselia puppets and so all my recent puppets have this and I am fitting the same into my own set. I hate floppy arms as they obscure the puppet's gestures. Hands can wave about a bit but the arms need to be stiff.
While I was doing this I thought about my tent instructions and thought the same could apply to swazzle tape. Normally I would boil the tape and then wind it still wet onto the swazzle. But maybe if one were to allow the tape to dry and wet it again before winding it, would this be of some benefit?
I guess it would be the same as if you unwound an old swazzle, ironed the tape, wet it and then wound it again. I'll experiment.