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

I want to re string one of my dolls entire body, you know, both arms/ legs. I know I could go to justmagicdolls.com and find so great info on it too. But if I did this the wrong way(knowing me I would) could my doll be totaled? I'm really not a good neat, crafty person so I'm wondering if I shouldn't just send her to the doll hospital to get her strings tightened. Like to day I went to a craft sale at a local high school and I saw some really cool things. And I know if I tried to do some of those things 4 people would be killed and a house would be burnt down! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Is re stringing a hard thing to do is basically what I mean.

I know people on here re-string. I would try it yourself, and if you run into trouble someone here would probably help out. I don't think there's any way you could damage your doll that couldn't be fixed. Good luck. I'm thinking it's AsianAG who restrings, but I could be wrong.

Jo

I think a lot of people here at HB re string. Or am I wrong? It seems like people here know a thing or two about re stringing so I though I'd ask.

Yes, people here have done the re-stringing. If I recall correctly, they've said it's not TOO hard. Personally, although I've done re-wigging, and re-stuffing, and a few other things, I wouldn't try the re-stringing. I'd be afraid of messing her up, and having 6 pieces of a doll laying around, even for just a few days.

I would guess that if you messed it up, you'd just have the restart. After taking out (do you cut?) the strings, you just have to put in new ones. At the very least, if you cut the old ones out and couldn't get the new ones in right, you could send the doll's pieces to the AG hospital, and (for a fee) they'd fix her up for you.

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Originally posted by cami713:
Yes, people here have done the re-stringing. If I recall correctly, they've said it's not TOO hard. Personally, although I've done re-wigging, and re-stuffing, and a few other things, I wouldn't try the re-stringing. I'd be afraid of messing her up, and having 6 pieces of a doll laying around, even for just a few days.

I would guess that if you messed it up, you'd just have the restart. After taking out (do you cut?) the strings, you just have to put in new ones. At the very least, if you cut the old ones out and couldn't get the new ones in right, you could send the doll's pieces to the AG hospital, and (for a fee) they'd fix her up for you.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Putting 'the new ones in'? You mean I would have to buy something to put in and replace the old strings?

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ March 04, 2006 06:19 PM: Message edited by: MissCurlyCat ]</font>

I believe so, hence the RE-stringing. I think you can tighten them, as well, though.

I just want to tighten them. Would I need new strings for that?

http://www.justmagicdolls.com/articl...estringing.htm

Here's Taffy's guide on re-stringing. I found the link by looking in the Website sticky at the top of the AGHB page. I looked through the sticky and didn't see anything specifically about tightening the limbs.

Hopefully someone who knows will post about it for you. But, again, I don't think it'll ruin the doll. If you mess her up, you can send her to the AG hospital. I assume this would be part of the Wellness visit?

After seeing that I might just send her to the AG hospital. [img]eek.gif[/img] I'm kind of sreamish wene it comes to surgery!

Elastic? Huh? Sorry, I'm just so naive and unintellagable about this stuff. I'd send her to the AG hospital but... [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img]

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

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]

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]

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