Sort of a tutorial

     The reason that the title of this post is "sort of a tutorial" is because it sort of is. I am going to show you how I turn a small Yvonne (the 6" ones) into a youth doll. I have some photos, I'll tell you how I did it, but I am not going into exhaustive detail. I have no other photos and I don't plan on getting more. If you want to try this and mostly understand what I mean, but have a question, I will likely answer it. If you want me to explain everything again you'll have to get ready for disappointment. I tried to get photos that show pretty well what I am talking about and I have personally had success with these methods. I also have not actually shown in a long while so have not personally put one of these remade dolls through a live show, though I have played around with them and put them on horses for some photos and not had anything fall apart. So that all being said, let's get into it!

     The first thing that happens to any doll I work on is the body work. Every single doll gets at least some. Yvonne type dolls are great riders, but they do need a bit of work. Turning a little Yvonne into a youth doll is only a bit of extra work. A lot of people have found that the dolls don't hold together very well. It's true, and it keeps them from being a really excellent small adult or youth doll. Hopefully these fixes will be an easy enough way to make yourself one of these smaller dolls. 

     The first thing you want to do is take your doll apart. You are going to be dremeling and trust me, it is just easier with the doll apart, since it is likely to fall apart as you work. 

     You want to dremel off the boobs, dremel the inner thighs flat, and dremel off a bit in the armpits (not shown) this way the arms stay down a little bit better because the sleeve fabric has a place to go instead of just pushing the arm out. I also cut off the necks because I add a bendy neck. 

      One of the biggest complaints I have seen, and that I myself have had, is the upper body falling off the rest of the torso. It was super loose and there didn't seem to be a way to keep it on while still allowing the body to move as it was made to. Never fear, sometimes an easy fix is all that is needed. Cut a TINY piece of medical tape (the squishy kind like 3M, not the fabric stuff that is the more typical) and wrap it partway around the peg that holds the upper body on. You may have to fiddle with this a bit because it is definitely easy to have too much tape on there. 

    OK, the leg fix. The legs on these dolls do not fit well, they fall off of every single one I have gotten, and it is incredibly frustrating. Not to mention that once the doll is dressed it is potentially harder to get the legs back on. So I have another easy fix, though it's not the easiest to do. Take a small, flat headed straight pin (these are satin pins I believe) and very carefully stab it through the upper portion of the legs. This is not super easy to do. I use pliers, take my time with it, and am prepared to bend a lot of pins before I get it in correctly. 

     Once you have the pin in bend it down on the pointy end, as close as you possibly can to the leg. You don't want the head to be sticking out much. Trim off some of the excess from the pointy end and squash both ends closer to the leg with your pliers. 

    After that it just comes down to popping the legs back on, putting the rest of the body back together, and getting the doll dressed. Yes, it is easier said than done and does take some finessing to get everything together, and it is still possible for things to fall apart, but these fixes help keep things together. And it makes it possible to have a smaller adult Yvonne or a pretty nice youth doll option other than the Breyer youth dolls. I hope you found this sort of tutorial helpful!