Restringing for the First Time...

I've got a great story about the first time I restrung my doll.

It was my first doll.

I'd had him for about an hour.

I accidentally unstrung him in the first ten minutes.

I'd been so nervous about his stringing--he was on a Bobobie body, and at the time they shipped them loosely strung to prevent damage. I knew this, and I'd been recommended how to easily tighten the strings, but I was still a bit nervous, and I guess that might be what caused me to, while retying the elastic after tightening it up, accidentally let go of one end... and since BBB bodies (at least then) didn't have S-hooks, that meant there was really no way for me to restring with that elastic. I carefully tied his foot and leg back on, went out to get some elastic from JoAnn's, and looked up a guide on how to restring a doll when I got back.

Let me tell you, though, after that experience? I haven't been nervous about restringing any of my standard-type dolls since! (I'm a bit nervous about my Eudora and Rus, mostly because quadruped stringing is a bit different from biped stringing, but I'm still going to do it. )

 

Okay, so my most recent doll has a jointed.... package, right? And it's held together with its own loop of elastic.

So I take my boy apart to put him back together, and when I get to his junk, its....loose. So I'm finding with resin junk for like ten minutes before I realize....I'd used the arm elastic instead of the Junk eleastic.

 

The first time re-stringing my very first doll was both exciting yet annoying when I look back at the experience.

Long before I got my doll, I had decided that I was going to try my hand at a feceup and body blushing. I read plenty of articles and watched any available videos.

When I unstrung my ResinSoul Feng. I made sure to take step by step pictures. I also took video, I separated pieces by left and right side, I labeled the pieces for each side. I placed pieces in separate containers...

I mean, I was absolutely paranoid!

The funny thing is, I ended up not needing any of the extra steps I took. Re-stringing my first doll became kind of an intuitive process because Resin Soul bodies are pretty simple and straight forward.

Later though, my struggle came when I began switching the pieces to some of my Iplehouse dolls, or I had to figure out the correct way to set it.

Now a days, I'm more comfortable re-stringing, even when it becomes a real pain.

You know, I only have one doll with a poseable penis, my Ringdoll Kirin, and I feel so silly adjusting the extremely thin elastic.

 

Horror story? Why, yes. (edit): It was the first restring, I remembered wrong. She remained unstrung for quite awhile so it felt like the second time. Taking her apart was the easy part so I thought putting her together would be, too. I tried using a wire to pull the string through a channel and it got stuck... so I yanked... and yanked.. (obviously should have clued in at some point) until it finally gave way, really, really quickly. The wire pierced all the way through the tip of my finger that was holding the leg. In one side, out the other. I don't even think it hit me what happened, I just kinda stared at it for awhile and then the panic sunk in. O_O So yeah. Lesson learned the hard way. Nowadays I stick to only using ribbon or threads, and it's alright. :P (sorry if that was graphic, but you asked for horror so there you have it)

 

I need to restring my doll she has a leg that jumps up randomly. I'm SOOO nervous about messing up or worse breaking her. These stories get me so nervous lol. I'll get to her at some point. 0_0

 

Two quick stories:

Ok, so this first one is not technically re-stringing, but I'll let you be the judge of that. My RingDoll guy has strung junk, so when I went to blush him earlier this year I tried to remove the elastic, but the damn thing just would not come off the little hook inside the body. So I ended up spraying him with MSC and blushing his torso piece entirely strung...he was uh...standing to attention the entire time.

Second story happens at a meet where a friend his complaining her doll is kicky on one side and totally floppy on the other. I said it's likely a knot caught in a joint and asked if I could take a look, she said sure and that she's never restrung a doll before so I can go ahead. So I pull apart the doll...then realise I didn't have my stringing kit with me to get the doll back together. So using several pieces of cutlery, a pen, my own fingers (R.I.P.), and a hair tie, I put the little guy back together. Given I was surrounded by doll people I kind of forgot were also in a public restaurant, and passers by were utterly mortified.

 

OMG, my very first time was horrible, I was restringing my Unoa's arms and her torso escaped from the elastic while I was holding her arms. It escaped, hit my finger to finally fell to the floor. In the end, I almost broke my finger and my Unoa torso....

 

I'm not sure if it's gonna be funny, interesting or horrible... but wow, a Dollstown 18yrs took me one and a half hour to restring, because the stringing was so unusual to me! I mean, I do LOVE maintenance things like stringing, hot glue sueding, cleaning, but all dolls I've disassembled had hooks on their feet, so I started from neck to feet. This body had no hooks on feet, so I had to start there and go up to the neck. It was actually the first time I needed someone else to help me with pulling strings, holding body parts and all. And in the end I was like "I'm queen of restringing", so proud and all XD

 

My souldoll girl came to me strung so tightly that her hand shot across the room when I tried to bend the wrist joint.

Followed by the rest of her arm landing in my lap.

I managed to get her restrung, but she's still too tight to keep her arms straight. I'm a bit scared to try again...

 

I remember when I first restrung Mio (minifee Chloe) was telling my mum how anxious I was and she was really against it all the "what if you can't put her back together " but I thought she's not much of a good doll to me if she can't pose, possibility is a priority to me as I'm really hands on.Anyway I remember using string and a bobby pin forgetting that the parts had an R for right and a L for left and doing it all wonky, not to mention the string I used wasn't long enough so I cut my fingers pretty bad trying to pull the body parts from the string to the elastic, anyhoo I eventually succeeded and don't regret it one bit for me its all part of the bonding experience.

 

My first time restringing was a nightmare, and poor Johnny is still reeling from the fallout...literally. I don't have a proper tool to help me pull and hold the strings so I had to use a crochet hook and a shoelace. Shoelaces are not bad for pulling, by the way. Then the knots were off-center and refused to pull through Johnny's skinny neck, so that was a problem. THEN I discovered that the string was tangled and making one side too tight, so I had to take Johnny's head off and do it all over again. The whole time I was terrified that I'd either break my doll or lose my grip and pop myself in the face. It took an hour and a half and even though the AC was going full blast I was dripping with sweat when I was done. To top it all off, I didn't get an internal piece placed correctly and I have to fight with Johnny to get his back straight. Y'all undoubtedly know about kicky joints; usually it's arms and legs, but Johnny has a back that's kicky now. I wish I'd left him alone, because he didn't even need that restringing to begin with!

 

It was about two years in the hobby before I ever restrung a doll. It seemed so scary and complicated and what if I broke one?? Well, one day my friend came over and told me that we were going to restrung Loki because he was so floppy, he couldn't even stand up. So she showed me how to do it on one of my dolls, then walked me through it on another and....it was ridiculously easy. I could not believe I stressed over something so simple for so long!

 

I am a coward, nine years in the hobby, and I have never re-strung a doll. I make doll clothes for a friend who re-strings my dolls for me.

 

I recently got my hands on a centaur doll had to string on the legs myself when it arrived...It was an absolute nightmare! The hooves didn't have hooks and instead just had this weird notch you had to slip over the string, which didn't hold it in place at all. It was just me sitting there for an hour struggling to fit these things in without them snapping off. Once it was done I swore to never unstringing that doll again....

 

The first time I restrung one of my dolls went just fine - in fact, I felt a bit silly for putting it off as long as I had. The first time I restrung someone else's doll? Not so much. A girl in the local comm had a floppy boy she was afraid of restringing herself, so I volunteered to do it for her. He was a kicky, floppy mess. I was taking him apart while trying to hold a conversation with a friend when he managed to pitch a foot, which bounced off my dining table, ricocheted off the wall, and ended up somewhere under the couch, terrifying my poor cats in the process. Luckily there was no damage, and the friend who observed the whole thing was sworn to secrecy. I did not think kind thoughts about that doll!

 

My first restring was last month, I was scared but finally I won...
But my doll is know too string ! and so she kick me