I have read about two different hand methods to re-rooting a doll's hair, the first one entails removing the head and using a large sewing needle, sew through the holes to the inside of the head where you have a short tail of hair that comes out of the needle once you have made the stitch, come out the neck. Okay, I can't remove the head of my play pal, it has a insert neck joint and even if it didn't, I wouldn't want to remove it.The second involves the other end of the needle, sellers on the Internet will talk you into a re-rooting tool and let me tell ya, wasting your moula! Basically it's a long needle with the eye cut off, leaving a "v" shaped notch. I have a bit of a rusty doll needle, so for me....the choice wasn't hard to re-purpose it. I used a awl on my doll because she is made of high quality plastic and will "mend" while poking with a smaller sized needle. You put hair in the notch of the needle, doubled size, use awl to reopen you hair hole, glue a dot and put hair, notch and needle through hole, up about 1/2 inch. When you pull the needle back, the hair will stay. It's time consuming and after a while I used rounded needle nose pliers to help insert the hair because it was rough on my hands. When I'm done re-rooting this doll I will cut my needle in half and put both parts in the empty spot of my awl. It will be easier to do a Barbie and I could use the notch in the awl itself.
I tried to post a photo of my Sayco doll with Auburn, she has been made with that color although rarer then brunette. Mine will be auburn and I'll go into more detail about the hair in a later post. The above photo is one row of bangs.
This photo is four rows.Did I mention I'm keeping track of how many holes it will take?
Yep. C&G Design
Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.
9 comments:
Dawn, I can imagine how your fingers must feel. I have done a couple of things this year that just torched mine. OUCH! Still, it looks wonderful and I admire your patience.
She looks great!
Dawn! All I can say is wow! My God girl...you really get into the nitty gritty of doll mending...my gosh! You are saving so many dolls from the heap pile. I will definitely be on the lookout this summer for dolls for you...and blue willow...and raggedies and ??...anything else? Great job on her hair so far...that takes a steady hand and much patience. Your hands must hurt after a while.
I bet that will take a long time to finish. You're off to a good start, it looks nice.
Marnie
Ouch! I never knew how they got the hair in the head. Very interesting. It's beautiful today here in northern Maine. I do believe I see Spring coming around the bend. Love, Kathleen
Boy, what a job but it looks great. You sure have the patience of Job. Can't wait to see the end results. Is there such a thing as quilters gloves?
Patience is an understatement. You sure have to have it to do such a good job on all the dolls you have fixed up so wonderfully.
I have enjoyed visiting your blog. I was looking for information about Lenci type dolls and was fascintaed to find that you alaso restore other dolls including composition boudoir dolls. i recently bought a boudoir doll off ebay that needs work but am hesitant to start as I have never done anything like this before. I also have a Lenci type doll that needs help. I cannot find a lot of information on repairing the dolls and am afraid to mess her up since I know they are quite rare. I would love it if you would come by and visit me here: http://www.debsvintagesoul.blogspot.com/. I made some posts about my Lenci type dolls. Say Hello if you find the time to come by.
Hi Lola, I do believe there is a quilters glove, one that has leather on the fingers for poking and pulling needles through, I had forgotten about that, it's so nice to have a wide span of knowledge. Thank goodness for the super highway!
Post a Comment