REAL weighting tutorial!

Here all this time I thought I had a GOOD weighting tutorial on my blog. I went back to it today to copy it as I prepare for my upcoming class. I was surprised that my "tutorial" was simply and explanation between the weighting of reborns in the past and how we do it today! Duh~ So...I decided just to go ahead and create a REAL weighting tutorial!

TNGUN Weighting and Assembly Tutorial

The first step into weighting and assembling your doll is to make sure that you have all the necessary supplies.

The List:
polyfill stuffing
your finished doll parts
quality doll body
zip ties with the small heads
plastic pellets or "baby fat" pellets
granulated glass beads (not powder fine but the "B" beads
E6000 glue
two sized of forceps
small pier
small scissors
nail clippers
powder free VINYL gloves (Latex gloves will deteriorate as will balloons)
Your favorite way to scent your baby. I use baby socks filled with powder, stitched closed


Please keep in mind that no two reborns are weighted the same. There are a lot of factors in weighting a doll from the size of the vinyl limbs to the overall size of the body and your desired outcome for that particular doll.

A few days before you expect to assemble your doll, weight the limbs with a combination of glass beads and stuffing. The kit I am using is a larger Adrie Stoete kit. Adrie tends to make very chubby, big limbs so it would be a mistake to completely fill this limb with glass beads.

Use a funnel to pour some beads into the foot and up to the calf of the leg. Using forceps, firmly pack in stuffing to just above the knee or so. Top this off with glass beads.

Using E6000 glue, my glue of choice, pour a layer of the glue over the opening to the limb. Set in a safe place to dry. (I always fill all my limbs and then apply the glue when I am sure I like the weight of the limbs)

Repeat the procedure for the arms adjusting the amount of glass beads and stuffing accordingly. The most important point to weighting limbs is that you balance the weight. Do not put all the glass beads in the lower part of the limb and fill the rest with stuffing. Your dolls limbs will just hang down and the doll will not feel real. It's really important to have weight up in the thigh and shoulder.

Set all the part in an undisturbed area to dry. (use the glue in a ventilated area) Periodically check the parts for bubbles in the first 15 minutes of drying time. The limbs will be fully dry in 24 hours but it is a good idea to let them "air out" a day or two longer.

After the limbs are dry and aired out, it's time to weight the body while assembling the doll.
Start with the legs. This doll is a 3/4 limb doll which means that there are hips and shoulders to the cloth body. The technique is the same for both the hip and shoulder on a 3/4 limb doll. Of course this has to change on bodies that have caps for full limbs, for bodies where the limb goes directly into the torso of the body and for 1/4 limbed bodes.

Place a small amount of stuffing in the leg openings. You want this to be firm enough to support the leg but not so full that the doll has hippo hips.

Gently tighten the zip ties around the leg flange. You will leave this loose during the full construction of you doll so that you can make adjustments where needed as you balance her out.

Now it is time to fill the torso of the doll. The arms are done after the torso is filled.
All bodies are different and this body just happens to have a nice gathered tushie.
On a body like this, I use two of my baby powder filled socks and tuck one on each side of the tush. This creates firmness while remaining soft to the pat.

Once again, all babies are filled differently. For this doll, I placed some baby fat pellets in a nylon stocking and dropped it down into the bottom of the doll. I keep my doll sitting upright for this application. Then I dumped in loose baby fat pellets to surround the gaps around the nylon sock.

I place another baby powder filled sock in the belly of the doll and begin to fill in the gaps with small pieces of stuffing.

When I have the bottom filled, I then prepare 1-3 vinyl gloves lightly filled with glass beads. I never, ever place glass beads in a nylon sock. Even double filled, they leak. I use the vinyl gloves as they won't corrode and they move so nice creating a real feeling to the doll.
This is a big doll and her mommy wanted a lot of weight so I used three gloves for her.

Laying the body down on the back, I cup the glove in my hand and lay it along the back of the body with the knot down into the lower part of the doll.

I then take a second glove and do the same thing but laying it towards the front/belly of the doll. I usually do not need to put stuffing in between them but instead take a thin layer and place between the glove and the back and the glove and the belly. Then I fill in under the arm pits...not tightly but just enough to give support. As you can see, I have left a pocket.....

This pocket is for the last glove, which is folded in half and place in the center to front chest of the doll. It's important to use common sense in where to place this. You do not want your doll to fall backwards or forwards. You will adjust this placement after the arms and sometimes after the head is on.


Fill in the top of the body with stuffing~again not packed in there, just enough to be firm while allowing free movement of the doll. Than add your arms in the same manner as you did the legs. LIGHTLY stuff the shoulders....we don't want any football playing babies here!
Lightly tighten the zip ties.

Now for the head. I have a HUGE pet peeve when it comes to reborn dolls. I despise nostrils in the air! LOL This should not be as real babies do not always lay around with their nostrils flung up in the air. I am going to show you how to prevent this from happening.

The formula is simple too! Don't put your weight in the top of the dolls head! Fill the top of the head FIRMLY with stuffing making it more packed in the back of the head while allowing some room into the lower part of the face.

Take another vinyl glove, open it up and place the fingers down into the center FRONT of the head, then wrap the opening around the head flange.

Pour in glass beads.

Use a wood craft stick to help push the beads down into the fingers then add more beads as needed.

Tie a knot in the end of the glove. You can see here how the glove is mostly to the front, in the chin area of the doll. This is very important for proper balance of your doll.
Fill in the empty area's with stuffing. Make sure this is packed well for security but not so stuffed that the dolls eyes bulge out.

Now it is time to place the head on the doll. Lightly tighten the zip tie, pick up the doll and see how she moves. Lay her back down. Does she lay in a realistic way? If not, remove any parts that you need to an make adjustments. Test her again and again until you think that the doll feels real in your arms and looks real when you lie her down. It is not uncommon for me to spend an hour to an hour and a half weighting a doll. If I just cannot get it right, I leave her alone for many hours and test her again later when I am less stressed.

Once the doll passes all tests, tighten all the zip ties, clip with a rounded nail clipper so that the ends are smooth, and if you can, tuck the head of the tie into the body casings.

The finished reborn baby waiting for a cuddle~

Happy Baby Making!