One thing that all American Girl Doll fans have to deal with is moving those neck strings around when you change the doll's outfit...
when you brush her hair...
when you fasten her clothes...
when you put her in a pretty new outfit with a pretty back and those white strings are just... There.
Well, some time back a Wonderful lady wrote to me about what a shame it was that those neck strings distracted from an outfit I had made in otherwise very nice photos. She had a lovely tip for me: hide the strings. I "shall always consider (her) a benefactress", to quote Anne of Green Gables, but unfortunately I cannot find that original message to me and thus, cannot credit her in this post. If you are that delightful person, please come forward so I may acknowledge your help :)
She went on to explain how she uses tweezers to push the strings down into the back opening on dolls with the gusset opening on their backs. Voila... no more strings sticking out and getting in the way, but they remain perfectly safe and pristine.
I used her method in these photos with the assistance of my long serger tweezers - available at any sewing source or
Amazon.com.
I did have to wrap the strings around the tweezers in order to insert them but I wonder if the process would be easier with curved tweezers? If anyone has them and tries that please let me know!
See below for the steps!
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Grasp and twist strings a few times
With the other hand, hold the strings from the bottom end and wrap the twisted strings around one side of tweezers. Pinch the ends tightly with tweezers. I had to try a couple times before I got them to stay.
Get ready to insert the strings.
Keep a tight grip on those tweezers as you work the strings inside. You will have to "find a path" through the stuffing.
Keep pushing and don't let go of the tweezer's grip until you get MOST of the strings inside.
Some will just not go, so at this point we will release the tweezers and pull them back out, leaving the strings partially inside.
Grap some of the strings that are still sticking out and push those inside.
Repeat until you have them all in there.
Now isn't that so much neater???
I love this trick :) I had these inside my doll for over a year and untucked the strings and the only thing was they were all curly, but a little misting and pulling will restore then to being straight. (Or a quick iron steaming on the ends -taking care to keep dolly's hair out of the path of the iron)
