Tightening the Legs of a LittleFee

Wovenflame submitted a new tutorial:

Tightening the Legs of a LittleFee

Read more about this tutorial here...

 

Peanut arrived with what I felt was perfect tension in her stringing, but she loosened up very quickly to the point of being unstable. Interestingly enough Pumpkin, my other LittleFee, arrived at almost the same time and she has held her tension quite well. Mind you she felt too tight in the beginning, and now she's just right, so maybe she loosened up too, just with less dire consequences.

 

Oh yes, DO it. It doesn't take long and it makes SUCH a difference! Peanut's ankles were one of the most noticeable problems. She couldn't hold any position that wasn't balanced directly over her foot, and even if it was, her loose ankles would allow her to gradually lean forward or back until she fell over.

I'm guessing that you must also be having problems with Artemis folding over at the waist? It took me a while to figure out that that problem was ALSO because of the loose legs. They were so loose that the hip mechanism couldn't hold her torso upright. If you put Artemis in an L shaped sitting position and then pick her up do her legs automatically drop down straight again? Loose leg elastic is the culprit!

 

The only step you will likely need help with is having someone to pull hard on the ribbon attached to the elastic loop in the left leg so that you can hook the ankle ball back on. I found two hands were needed to pull hard enough and then you still need another hand available to place that hook.

 

I've only had to tighten the legs of mine so far (I've had them nearly a year now). If after doing just the legs it doesn't seem to be enough perhaps you will need to restring the whole doll.

Lyzrd has done an excellent tutorial on restringing the whole doll.

 

Wow, way to go! Now you're more accomplished than I am. I've only done the legs so far.

 

Oh dear! I wonder how that happened? If you use the procedure above, using a ribbon to keep everything together and to give you something to grab hold of to pull on, there should never be a point when the doll is actually dismantled to the point where a knee should go missing. Did you use some other procedure?

 

I'm sorry that I did not see this question much sooner. All these months later I'm hoping you have somehow resolved the problem? But in case someone else comes along with the same, or similar issues:

If the elastic feels super tight when you pull at the ankle, but very loose when you pull from the thigh, I'd say that the knot of the elastic is stuck somewhere in the calf. That would make the elastic loop nearly impossible to pull out enough to rehook the foot, and yet the rest of the elastic could be so loose that she could barely stand. Try relocating the position of the knot (just rotate the elastic loop) so that it is not catching anywhere.

Depending on how you pose your doll, the elastic could very well need replacing after only a year --- or it could last for many years without problem. When my very first doll (Peanut, the doll in the tutorial) arrived I was so amazed at her incredible posing ability that I put her in an unsupported, deep crouching squat. I thought that was so neat that I ignorantly left her that way overnight. Well in the morning she was all loosey-goosey and required the tightening I describe in the tutorial. So the lesson is; don't leave your doll for long periods of time in a deeply bent position where the elastic will be in a fully extended position.

 

You're welcome.

I think this tutorial might be helpful for people trying to troubleshoot other dolls that are put together similarly as well. Fairyland's owners' manuals show how the dolls are strung.

 

If only one leg is loose you might find that the knot is just caught somewhere inside the leg. Yes, strong string would work fine. Just make sure it truly is VERY strong! It takes quite a strong pull to get that loop exposed below the ankle and some strings that are thin enough to fit through the openings won't be strong enough to stand up under the pull.

 

The legs should be one elastic that goes from one foot through the pelvis, and down to the other foot. That's why by letting the tension off at one foot you can pull additional elastic out the other foot to retie the elastic shorter. The knot for that elastic was in the calf section of my Littlefees. If, as I suspect, your knot in the leg elastic is caught somewhere it could make one leg terribly loose while the other remained tight, or perhaps was even tighter than originally.

If you do as the tutorial suggests and catch that ankle loop with ribbon or strong string, you will be able to loosen the entire leg apparatus up to better see what is going on.

 

Just realized that you haven't actually said your girl is a Littlefee. Is she? I can't imagine there not being a knot somewhere in the legs unless Fairyland has completely changed the way they string Littlefees since I bought mine. The elastic for the legs in mine is a piece that is separate from the torso/arm stringing. That means there HAS to be a knot to make it a loop.

If your girl IS a Littlefee have you looked at the manual that comes with them? There is a diagram in there showing how they are strung. The legs are a continuous loop created by a single string being knotted.

 

Aahhhh! Well, all bets are off then. LOL. There is quite a bit of variety in the way different companies string their dolls. Using a string to hold everything together when you let go of the tension on the elastic is still a good starting point though.