Throwback Thursday: This Little Girl Needed Extremities

First seen here, my souvenir doll from the West Indies, circa 1960s, arrived without arms and legs.  I decided to fashion some for her.  Here's what I did:

I connected the mid sections of two pipe cleaners to create an armature.

The armature was inserted through the leg area with the legs exiting the leg holes and the arms guided up and pushed out the arm holes.

She looks like an insect here but her arms and legs will look better soon.  There was no particular reason for my use of red and green pipe cleaners except these were the first two I found in my doll repair materials box (even though I do have brown ones).

I stuffed the body with polyester fiberfill with particular attention at the leg and arm holes to hold the armature in place.

Additional stuffing with poly-fil was done with my handy tool -- a No. 2 pencil.

To create the "skin," I wrapped each extremity several times with self-adherent wrap, creating the shape of arms and legs as I applied the additional layers.

A couple of layers of Mod Podge sealed the wrap in place with the first layer allowed to dry before applying the second.  I mixed black and brown acrylic paint to closely match the doll's complexion.

The arms and legs were painted and allowed to dry.

She's been redressed in her original clothes, which were washed and air dried the day she arrived.

She looks so much better and probably feels much better, too. 

Thanks again, Ellen!


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