Doll Repair

Dolls tin can go life-long treasures. This Set-It Guide on doll repair tells how a doll works, what oft goes wrong, how to identify a doll problem, and what parts and tools you lot will need to fix it. It then gives elementary footstep-by-pace instructions for how to replace a cloth-trunk doll's torso and how to restring a plastic or vinyl doll. Whether information technology'south a toy or a collectible, your home doll infirmary can rejuvenate many friends using doll repair, teddy bear repair, or hand puppet repair. This guide likewise refers yous to another Fix-It Guide for sewing repairs.

How Does a Doll Work?

A doll is a small-scale-scale effigy of a human being used especially equally a child'due south plaything. Dolls are besides keepsakes, collectibles, and sometimes valuable antiques. Repair of valuable antique dolls and porcelain dolls should be left to a professional or a "doll hospital."

Common play dolls come in three types. Soft dolls (or rag dolls) are made of durable fabric, ordinarily with pilus fabricated of yarn. Cloth-trunk dolls take torsos made of textile, heads and limbs that are plastic or vinyl, and hair that is either rooted or a glued wig. Some plastic or vinyl dolls are held together past flanged limbs or rubberband.

What Can Go Incorrect with a Doll?

Unlike children, dolls suffer in silence. They may get torn or lose an arm or leg without complaint. After years of apply or storage, their stuffing may become apartment, or they may demand a gentle cleaning to revive them.

Prepare-It Tip

Wash dolls with a mild detergent and a damp rag, then dry with a clean rag. If the doll's pilus is rooted (fed through the scalp), you can shampoo information technology. Don't shampoo dolls with wigs considering water may harm the glue.

How Tin I Identify a Doll Problem?

In nigh cases, the problem is evident, equally is the solution.

  • If a cloth-body doll's trunk is severely damaged, supplant it (see beneath).
  • If the head, arm, or leg comes off a doll with push-in limbs, apply a hairdryer to make the plastic pliable, then reinsert the role into the torso.
  • If the rubberband inside the doll that holds limbs or the head on breaks, replace information technology (see below).
  • If a soft doll loses its shape, open a central seam and add together fresh polyester stuffing available from a arts and crafts store, then run up the doll seam closed.
  • If a doll wig comes loose, glue it back on with a white glue or super gum.
  • If a doll's rooted pilus is damaged beyond repair, cut it off shut to the scalp and gum a wig over information technology–or discover a doll chapeau that fits.

Set up-It Tip

Larger arts and crafts stores will take extensive doll-making and repair supplies including fabrics, stuffing, glues, and even parts. Have the doll in for a lucifer and some communication.

What Practice I Need for Doll Repair?

You can find most replacement doll parts in a local craft shop or on the Net. In addition, y'all may need these :

  • Needles
  • Thread
  • Wire-cutting pliers
  • White mucilage
  • Scissors
  • Rubberband cloth
  • Wire glaze hanger

What Are the Steps to Doll Repair?

Doll Repair

You can admission the inside of a cloth doll by cutting a slit in its back, then endmost it up when done.

Replace a cloth-torso doll's torso:

  1. Undo the stitching holding the caput and limbs to the torso. Then un-stitch the body and use the fabric as a pattern (adding nigh 3/4 inch all the fashion effectually for the seam) for the new trunk. Add about one inch of fabric to the limb and neck openings.
  2. Sew together the torso within out, leaving the rear seam open. To adhere plastic or vinyl pieces, turn up about 1 inch of fabric and run up through the holes located at the base of each piece.
  3. Turn the torso right side out and stuff the doll with polyester filling.
  4. Stitch up the rear seam with small, tight overhand stitches.

Restring a plastic or vinyl doll:

  1. Brand two elastic stringing loops: one for the legs and caput, and a shorter one for the artillery. Loop sizes depend on the material's elasticity and the doll size. The rubberband should hold the head and limbs securely while assuasive smooth motion. Make tight knots in the end of the elastic to bind it.
  2. If the head is attached with an internal hook that's broken or missing, make a new 1 from a wire coat hanger. Cutting off a department with wire-cutting pliers and bend information technology into shape. Attach the hook to the head bar. Then secure the larger elastic stringing loop to the hook and push the loop downward through the neck cavity and into the doll's trunk. Position the doll head on tiptop of the body.
  3. To attach a leg, make a stringing claw to reach into the torso and grasp the loop hanging from the head. Pull the loop down through the leg hole and secure information technology to the hook inside the leg. Pull out the stringing hook and repeat the process for the other leg.
  4. To adhere an arm, hook one end of your stringing loop to the arm and feed the loop through the arm hole. Use the stringing hook to pull the loop through the reverse arm hole. Attach the loop to the claw on the arm then remove the stringing hook.

Set-It Tip

If yous really enjoy repairing dolls, endeavor one of the books or videos bachelor on the subject. You can find them through your local book or craft shop, or online. And some larger craft stores offer periodic classes in doll making and repair.