German tanned buckskin

[rfisher]

I have two large German tanned hides and want to make a dress for my wife.
I doubt it will see much hard use. I was wondering do I need to stretch these hides first? I always used to stretch commercially tanned hides but this German tan is so much like brain tan maybe I don't need to. It doesn't seem to have much elasticity to it.

 

[LaBonte]

I have used a lot of this leather and yes I would HIGHLY recommend pre-stretching. While the instructions say stretch dry I stretch wet and then re-soften just by working it back by hand.