How to Restring a Minifee A-Line [Tutorial --20 pics] ARMS post 11

Mods, move me if I'm in the wrong forum or merge me if you feel this should be in another thread. I'm retarded at finding where I'm supposed to be in all of life XD

The arms stringing is in post 11. Because it seems best I include arms now. So look at post eleven and then return back up to here.

Okay, getting on with it. How to restring a MNF A-Line.

What you'll need:
All the MNF parts laid out, sorted by what goes on the left side and the right side of the doll.
Your doll's elastic
Two pieces of THIN ribbon, long enough that when doubled over it will be able to pass through each joint.
Possibly scissors



First, (remember arms page 11, this starts out after they're already done!) put ribbon on your elastic, thread it through the armholes inside to out, and pull through half way keeping the knot inside the torso. Then pull other side through in same fashion, put the arm pieces on, attach the wrists, and ta-da. Should look like this:



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Hold out your elastic. See, it's tied. Put the knot slightly off center and double it over. Next put on the 3 neck joint pieces near the knot. First put on the ball, then the piece with the hole in it, then the last piece with the S hook attached by pushing each piece of elastic into the S-hook (so two should go in). Then push them all together and ta-da!





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Tough part is over now XD (I can't even begin to say how many times I did this cause I put them in the wrong order )

Now, put a piece of ribbon through the two loops of elastic hanging down and hold the ribbon ends together. Push them down the neck and make sure they go over the elastic in the chest (so the chest is facing up and the ribbon is nearer the boobs than the arm elastic).



Pull the elastic down through.

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Do the same for the next torso piece. After that separate the two pieces of elastic and give them each their own piece of ribbon.



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Shove the left hand sided piece of ribbon through the left hand sided hip joint (so doll's right side ribboned elastic through doll's right hole).



Then do the same with the other leg. Pull the elastic through.

 

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Put on upper leg joints



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Followed by the middle upper leg joint and then the upper leg



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Next on are the knee joints. The slice in the resin faces up towards the leg. Facing down is the smooth part (this is what's visible).



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And on go the lower legs:



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Ankle joints. See how that slit in the joint ends about half way though? That's the part that faces you/up on your minifee.



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See how the slit goes almost the whole way down on this piece? This side is the back:



So ankle joints are on. Now come the feet! Pull the elastic out with the ribbon and grasp it between your thumb and finger. (showing doll's left leg here)



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Now push the knob like thing on the ankle through the elastic.
(doll's right leg is shown here, unlike last post. sorry for any confusion!)



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To finish, give your poor kid a head XD

The ONLY reason you would need scissors is if you have difficulties getting the string through and tie a knot at the top and stick it through that way, and in that case you may need to cut the string because pulling it tightly will make the knot very tight and hard to get out. (I rarely knot my ribbon, and usually just fiddle around with untying if I do, but it really is much easier to cut the ribbon).

 

Good point, Oizys! It does have to be thin otherwise it totally doesn't go through >.< I'll edit my post to say so ^^ I totally confused myself when I tried to do the neck. I sat there staring at my pictures for a few minutes before I even tried to explain it XD

MoortjeB, You're most welcome! :3

 

Figured I should include a mini bit for the arms here. I don't know how to directly link to posts though, so someone should help me with that so I can put a link to this post in the first post.

What you'll need for arm stringing:

yourself and both hands
doll
thin ribbon, two pieces
patience
possibly bead pliers, though only if you're really desperate xD

Arms. First, lay out your arm pieces, left pieces on the left, right pieces on the right:
(I like to leave the hands on their wrist pieces, but that's just personal choice)



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Now position your elastic. You'll want it to lay in two kind of flat lines with the knot in the center. Picture explains it. Loop your ribbon around the elastic and shove it through one of the arm holes, like so:



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Now pull it and the elastic through to the knot, leaving the other half sticking out.



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Take another piece of string and string the other side of the elastic through. Have fun. This is literally the single most hard part of stringing. No kidding. Doesn't matter what doll chest mold, it plain out sucks. (I used bead pliers today for the first time ever. You can stick the tip in the arm hole and try to catch the ribbon ends inside the torso with it)



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Now slide on the arms, followed by the elbow joints. The bigger part of the elbow joint that's more circular faces up, the thinner more square like piece faces down into where the lower arm will go.



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String the next arm piece on. Or line them all up on the ribbon and now pull the elastic through. Either way, you want the end of your elastic and your hand. Now you'll just hold your elastic out (leave the ribbon in it!). Pinch it between thumb and pointer finger, leaving the rest of the doll behind you. So you're holding her (or him) by the elastic, not the resin. Then slide the hook through the loop. Lastly remove the ribbon.



Do this to the other arm, and you're done! Or you can do both at the same time like I did with the legs~

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Closing notes:
ONLY once the hook is through should you remove the ribbon from the elastic. It doesn't matter if you think you've got a bunch of elastic and a good grip. If you accidentally lose hold of the elastic you've got to do the side all over again. And that tends to suck.

The MNF hooks are nice and wide, so easy to get on and off.

To unstring, since you can't grab the hand and pull like you would on a different doll, take the hand off and grab the wrist. If the stringing is too tight to pull the elastic out on one side (possibly the knot in the way) try the other side.

There's two pieces of ribbon to make things easier. You can do one arm at a time or do both keeping pieces even on each. BUT it's a very good idea to have two pieces of ribbon, one in each side. Because if the elastic slips back through then you can pull it back through the arm hole without having to restick ribbon through and such. Makes life easier, I swear :3

If your elastic seems too tight and like you won't be able to get it out of the arms enough to put the hook through I'd suggest pulling elastic from your finished arm. Like grab the upper piece (or lower) if it's the one without the knot and pull it tighter, this will change where the S hook rests in the wrist and give more elastic to the knotted side, letting it stretch further.

Also, although I string by myself, when I began my little sister and I strung together. Mainly I'd pull the elastic out and she'd hook the S-hooks on. It's easier to just pull the elastic out and let someone else put the S-hooks on than it is to do it yourself. But you can do it yourself with practice :3

 

Oh my! I will definitely get on editing that first post!

EDIT: It's changed! Look better now?