If the legs or arms have gone a little slippy slidy on you and you find your doll leaning or not being able to stand upright anymore, your limbs probably need a little maintenance. If you don't foresee restringing your doll in the future, you may be interested in some quick fixes.

#1 Buy some thick elastic hair ties at the store (Walgreens, Dollar Store, Amazon, Grocery Stores, Target) in the Hair sections where they sell shampoos and brushes. Odds are you won't find white, but it's ok to use black on the inside.

#2 Remove your doll's head and remove all the stuffing out of the body. Save it, you'll need to restuff your doll. You'll notice the elastic and the cups holding each limb inside the body. Now sometimes you will find a copper crimp there, sometimes you'll find a knot, it really depends on if your doll has been repaired before and how they did it. What you are going to do is to pull the knot away from the cup to see the amount of slack there is. If there is a lot, this is probably why your limbs are wonky. You are going to fill that space in with the hair tie by wrapping the tie around and around underneath the knot/crimp until all that extra slack is filled in (much like you do when wrapping a hair tie around a ponytail, you just keep twisting it and pulling the hair through, twisting until the rubber band is tight. Same thing here. Make sure all of the hair tie is UNDER the knot/crimp and that it's tight, so keep wrapping until you have no more hair tie and it's completely tight. Repeat on all the limbs. I do this even if the limb doesn't need it so that all the limbs are tightened at the same time. This eliminates to do this step in the future if another limb gets loose. When all four limbs are done, it's time to restuff.

#3 PRO-TIP - Tightening the limbs is only 50% of getting rid of loose arms and legs, the other 50% is in how you stuff the doll. Take your time on this step. What you are going to want to do is use small amounts of stuffing and start building a fluff foundation inside the doll. This means to slowly pack the stuffing in around each of the limbs, and pack it down tight. Don't leave any open pockets of empty space anywhere. Work your way from bottom to top making sure you are packing around each leg, in the crotch and butt area really well. Keep packing the fluff tight all the way to the top. When you get to the arms, pad those shoulders and around to the back of the shoulders really well. If you've gotten to the top and you run out of your original fluff and you need more, pack in more you want that doll packed tight and it will keep the limbs really sturdy. When you are at the very top there should be enough fluff on top to not see the rubberbands or elastic for the arms at all. It should be completely buried and tight.

#4 Do a quick test on all you limbs by flicking them up and down and see if the pose holds. They should feel stiff and tight and when you position them up, they should not flop back down but hold in mid-air. If they don't perform well, your fluff was not tight and packed down enough or your hair ties weren't tight enough. Restart and try again. If all is well, reattach your head using the neckstring.

You're done! For questions regarding this tutorial, please message us for help.