If I did this the wrong way, could I ruin my doll?

[TaffyCheerful]

I don't see any way in which you could "ruin" the doll. As was pointed out above, the worse that could happen is that you would have the head, body and four limbs lying there and you could pack them into a box and send them to the AG Hospital.

Restringing is not difficult as all you are doing is replacing the elastic cord that holds her joints together. Doll joints are almost exactly the opposite of people joints. In people, what holds the joint together are the tendons and ligaments around the joint, while in AG-style dolls, it is a length of elastic cord that runs straight through the center of the joint, one short piece of cord per joint.

As far as "tightening" her joints without "replacing" the elastic cord, I just don't know how one would do that. Once you get to where you have access to the cord, the obvious thing to do is just replace it. The reason the joint is loose is that the cord has lost its elasticity.

Taffy

[robin0850]

Hear, hear--what Taffy said!

Let me add that if you want to re-string, be sure to reference the justmagicdolls.com site, and get the right tools, and the right kind of elastic--a couple of doll-supply sites are mentioned.
If you re-string dolls regularly, or have several dolls to maintain, it's well worth the investment in tools and supplies. (Otherwise, if you only have one or two dolls that need to be re-strung, you might want to get another board member who re-strings to do it for you, unless you prefer the AG Hospital, of course.)

P.S. I do re-stringing, so anyone interested is welcome to PM me for details! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[PrincessRuthie]

I'm about to do my first restringing of a doll, and I find Taffy's instructions very helpful. I got new strings and hemostats from www.adollysworld.com so all I need to do is visit a hardware store for the rest of what I need.

So, thank you for those instructions, Taffy! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[TaffyCheerful]

Although some folks say they are a bit squeemish about disassembling their dolls to restring them and would rather not do it, I tend to hold the dolls I have restrung as more dear to me. After all, they NEEDED my help and I was able to provide it...

Taffy