You know that point where you are playing with your doll and you lift up an arm or a leg and it comes right back down? Or you are holding the doll by the neck and swinging it back and forth and the legs are dangling and swinging back and forth? These are both signs that your doll needs restringing and it's not as hard as you might think, but it does take time so pick a day where you have some extra time and let's get to it!

Note that if you do not want to DIY this process we do have doll hospital services where we do this for you. Just go back to our home page and under Doll Arena you will see a page for Doll Hospital Services.

What you will need:

(1) Restringing Kit pictured above and you can purchase also below.

A pair of long nosed tweezers

A pot where legs and arms can fit in where you can boil water

A clear area of table space that's clean

A pair of pliers or jewelry crimping tool

A pair of small nosed scissors

Clamps

Let's get started.

1. First we need to remove the doll's head. If your doll has a zip tie you will need to flip her over to the back where the neck has an opening and gently snip the zip tie off with a pair of small scissors. I say small because bulky scissors end up being awkward butting up against the back of the neck and getting under the zip tie. If your doll has a neck string congratulations, your job is easier and you can unknot the neck string and pull the head right off.

2. Now you should be looking at a headless doll, scary right? We get used to it here and learn to look at it as dolls in progress. Under the head you should be looking at a nice pile of fluff. If your doll is really old you might want to evaluate that fluff as you pull it out to see if you want it back in your doll or you want new fluff. I would be looking at signs of yellowing, any mildew if the doll had gotten wet at any point, etc. A trip to any fabric store in the "making cushions" are in the back will reveal you can buy Poly Fluff or Poly Fill in bags used for stuffing. It's relatively inexpensive and you can use it to fill pillows and stuffed animals and of course dolls.

3. Remove all the fluff from the body. This is where I suggest that you have a clear table space and that it's clean because poly fluff can stick to loose thread, particles, and anything else and take it with it into your doll later, so it's just easier if you wipe down the surface of your table space before you take out what seems a ton of fluff. Keep digging with your hands into the body and pulling out that fluff until there is none left inside. How did all that fluff get in there? Well it's compacted inside the doll but when you pull it out it expands so it always looks impossible when you are stuffing a doll that it will all fit.

4. Once all the fluff is removed you should be able to clearly see the back end of all your limbs. There will be a white limb cup and a copper crimp on the outside with a piece of big elastic shooting out from it. I find that it is easier to detach limbs from the outside. Here's where people get afraid but dont' worry we will walk you through it.

5. Take a limb (arm or a leg) and stretch it out so that you can see the elastic cord. Here's where an alligator clip or clamp comes in handy. Clamp it right outside the leg/arm hole on the limb side and then cut the elastic about an inch above it. The leg/arm will now be completely detached. Now go inside the body and retrieve the white limb cup and throw away the other half of the elastic with it's copper crimp. This is trash and it's not re-useable in any way. Repeat this step until you have removed all the legs and arms.

6. Now your task is going to be to get the other half of that elastic and crimp out of the legs and arms. Because that hole is smaller than the limb cup, you can try to pry it out and warp it through that hole with a pair of pliers but it does kind of destroy the limb cup and you do need to re-use it. This is where heating a pot of boiling water comes in. Take your limbs to the kitchen and get a pot of boiling water ready. You are going to put the limbs into the boiling water with the hole side up. I try to not get water inside the limb, it's ok if you do as you can drain it out, but I like to avoid it. I use a pair of tongs to "dip" one limb at a time into the pot keeping the hole side up and just heating the limb. The vinyl will get soft and that's what we want because we need to pry out that limb cup out of the limb through it's hole.

7. When the limb is soft remove it from the water and use a pair of long nosed tweezers or pliers, whatever you have to push and pull that limb cup out of the limb through the hole. I find the most effective method is to push the limb cup a little bit away from the hole, grab the side with the tweezers and then turn the limb cup on it's side to pass it through the hole. You will repeat this step for all four limbs.

8. This is the ideal time to put the new elastic in. Take a piece of elastic from your Restringing Kit and feed a copper crimp about an inch away from the end. The wide end should be facing away from the end with the smaller opening on the crimp facing the end of your elastic cord. Using pliers or your jewelry crimp tool, crimp that copper crimp so that it pinches onto the elastic. Do it hard, don't hold back because you need that crimp to absolutely not move when that elastic moves and stretches. Test your crimp to see how it holds and crimp again if you didn't crimp it hard enough.

9. Feed the limb cup onto your elastic/crimp piece with the small hole facing the crimp and the underside of the dome facing towards the un-crimped side.

10. Now it's time to get the new elastic back into your limb. If your limb has gotten cold and stiff again, heat it up again in your boiling water in the same way you did in Step 6.

11. Take the limb out of the boiling water and you are going to want to push that limb cup with the open dome facing towards you back into the leg. Have a good hold on the end of your elastic (the part that doesn't have a crimp on it because you don't want to lose it inside the leg - this is the part that needs to be crimped through the body. Once you have pushed it through the hole, you can clamp it so that it doesn't fall inside of the leg while you are working on the other limbs.

12. The hard part is done, and this is where you get excited because the last steps are easy. But it is important to pay attention because before you get too excited about attaching your limbs to your body, pay attention to your lefts and rights because I would hate for you to go through all that work and then re-attach your legs and arms in reverse by accident. I recommend you lay out your limbs in the right spots on your table on the outside of your body before attaching anything to keep the lefts on the lefts and the rights on the rights.

13. Remove your clamp on your limb and hold the end of your elastic. Thread it through the hole on your body. From the inside of the body slide the opposite limb cup (you should have four spare) with the end of the dome pressed up in the direction of your limb and the small hole facing you through on the elastic. Slide on your copper crimp with the wide part facing your small hole and the small opening facing you and crimp it down with your pliers or jewelry crimping tool just like you did for the other side. You want to make sure it is as tight as it can be down that elastic. Loose is not good in this case, you don't want any slack and you want to even pull that elastic to get it super tight before crimping down the final. This will ensure that your limbs are not loose. Repeat for all your limbs.

14. Once you've attached all your limbs it's time to restuff your doll. I find that the bottom area where the butt is the most difficult part because you need to stuff the fluff in that small area in between both legs and then around to that booty. I find that using small amounts of fluff in those areas and then building up is better than grabbing a giant handful of fluff and throwing it inside. If you do this the giant mound just sits on top of the leg ends and doesn't go down in between in those small spaces and you don't want air pockets inside your doll.

15. Pack down that fluff until you get all that was taken out put back in. Use small amounts of fluff around the limbs and in the small crevices before stuffing large amounts in. Your doll should be stiff in the body when you are done and not squishy if you've packed it in enough.

16. To reattach the head, set the bottom circle of vinyl under the neck opening and draw up your neckstrings to tie it. I find that looping over the string another time from a standard tie makes it so when you draw it in, it won't loosen as you do your knot. If you don't have a neckstring we do sell a Neckstring kit in our store under Doll Accessories. To use it, fold the end of the neckstring and thread a small safety pin through. Feed the neckstring through the neck casing feeling for the safety pin and pushing it around the casing until the end comes out. Undo the safety pin and then you are ready to tie your neckstring to hold your doll's head on.

17. Once the head has been attached your doll is done. She should feel tight and her limbs should hold their poses. You should be proud that you made it through a doll restringing.

Did something not go as planned? We are here to help. Contact us if you get stuck and we will help you get through these steps or if you have questions.