How To Restring A Gotz Doll

Vinyl baby dolls like this doll are usually held together by internal strings.

Gotz dolls, like other vinyl baby dolls, have separate body and limb parts. The limbs are attached to the body by elastic strings that run through the joints and into the body. Over time, this elastic can wear out and become loose or snap completely, leaving the doll with hanging or disconnected limbs. Normally, damaged dolls are sent back to the company or to a doll specialist for repairs. However, you can restring your own Gotz doll using a few basic materials.

Things You'll Need

• Gotz doll
• Scissors
• Hemostat medical forceps or tweezers
• Hair dryer
• Needle-nosed pliers
• Doll elastic string

Instructions

1. Remove the limbs from the body. To do so, pull each limb away from the body and cut the elastic string that attaches them to the body.

2. Pull the string out of the body. Grip the string with a pair of medical forceps or tweezers, and pull it out through the limb sockets.

3. Identify the vinyl cup in each socket, and at the end of each limb. These cups are concave vinyl pieces that sit between the limbs and the body.

4. Turn a hair dryer to a low setting. Heat one of the cups until it is flexible enough to remove, then pull the cup out of the socket with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

5. Remove all cups from the sockets on the doll body and from the limbs.

6. Cut the elastic string into a foot-long piece. Tie one end of the string into a large knot and thread the other end through one of the arm cups.

7. Hold the hair dryer over the cup until it is soft enough to push back onto the arm. Repeat this process on the other limbs.

8. Thread each piece of string through the remaining body cups. Insert the strings into the limb sockets and tie them all together in the center of the body. Pull the strings tight so that the limbs sit in the sockets.

9. Heat up the body cups and push them back into the body.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have trouble aligning the strings for the arms and legs, you can insert a short piece of PVC pipe into the center of the body. Run all of the strings through the pipe.

• If your doll has a cloth body, you will need to remove the head in order to take the limb cups out of the doll.

References

• Prillycharmin: Classic Stringing Instructions