These are questions I hear often from reborn doll artists. The reality is that it is difficult to find satisfying answers to these questions. Which is why I developed one tool that quickly and easily answers them all! Click Read More to learn how I achieve lifelike Real Feel weight on my reborn dolls! Acceptable Weighting MaterialsReborn dolls are hand-crafted to look and feel just like a real baby. Now that we've carefully painted and rooted Alissa Beth to look like a real baby, we need to make her feel like one. We accomplish this through proper stuffing and weighting. At CustomDollBaby.com, I only use the highest quality stuffing and weighting materials. I use premium poly-fil for volume and softness. There are a variety of high-quality weighting materials that you can use to make your doll feel just like a real baby in your arms. These include: - Fine Glass Beads: http://www.bbreborndollsupplies.com/product/1663 - Silicone Baby Fat Inserts: http://www.bbreborndollsupplies.com/product/2488 - Baby Fat Pellets: http://www.bbreborndollsupplies.com/product/716 - Poly-Pellets: http://www.bbreborndollsupplies.com/product/218 A doll should never be weighted with any form of sand. Sand is non-uniform - which makes the doll feel gritty rather than soft. Depending on the source, sand can also carry bacteria and contamination. If your doll is weighted with sand, replace the sand with a high-quality material as soon as possible! Now that we know what we can put in the doll for weighting, we need to figure out just how much weighting material we need. Find out next time in Stuffing & Weighting 201: Distributing Weight for Optimal Life-likeness! Calculating Ideal Baby WeightFirst, you don't need as much weight as you may have thought. Real babies are mostly water. 7lbs of mostly water feels a lot lighter than 7lbs of glass beads. This is known as the "dead weight" effect. In other words, if you want your doll to feel like it weighs 7lbs, it needs to weigh a bit less than that. Secondly, where you place the weight plays an important role in the making your doll feel lifelike. A newborn baby carries 25% of her weight in her head. That is why you have to support the head when handling an infant or newborn sized reborn doll. However, toddlers have considerably less of their weight in their head. In fact, an adult only carries 8% of her total weight in her head. So, for true lifelike-likeness, the amount of weight you put in each body part should be appropriate for the age and size of your baby doll. So how do you know how much weight you need and where? Over the years, I've combined medical research with my doll weighting experience to develop an algorithm for weighting my dolls to feel as real as possible. For the first time in my career, I'm making that algorithm available to other artists in my Real Feel Lifelike Reborn Baby Weight Calculator. And I've summarized all my math into an easy 10-step process. Just fill in the yellow boxes and the calculator does the rest! The calculator has data for any vinyl doll kit from 10" to 28" in length. Grab your copy today in my online store! Weighting the Arms and LegsNow that we've established what kind of weighting materials to use and how to distribute them throughout the doll, we're ready to begin the process of weighting, stuffing and assembling Alissa Beth!
Maybe your customer specified that she wanted a 5lb baby. No problem, type 80oz into the calculator. Perhaps you're donating your doll to a nursing home and need the doll to be lighter. Or maybe you want your doll to be real baby weight. Just type in your target weight in oz and the calculator does the rest! Step 2: Weigh the Vinyl Parts. To figure out how much weight you need to add, we first need to know how much you're starting with. Weigh each part individually and add that weight to the calculator (or write it down somewhere if you're not using the calculator). Step 3: Weigh the Torso. I like to weigh the torso with stuffing in it because the stuffing, as light and fluffy as it is, does add weight. If you're putting any other goodies in the torso: silicone inserts, belly plates, back plates, breathing mechanism, heart beat, etc... be sure to weigh that too. We need an accurate assessment of the starting weight before adding any more weighting material. Step 4: Determine the Real Feel Weight of each part. If you have the Real Feel Calculator, that output is given to you in percentages and ounces. If you don't have the calculator and you're weighting a 20" doll, multiply your target weight by each percent given below: Step 5: Weight the Legs. A perfectly floppy baby doll has limbs that are bottom-heavy. So I always add my weighting material first. Remember, the polyfil adds weight too, so if the Calculator says you need 4oz of weight, don't pour 4oz of glass beads in the part or it will get too heavy. Work the beads down into the toes and ankles. If your leg is already heavier than Real Feel Ideal, only fill glass beads to the ankle. Once you've added your weighting material, fill up the rest of the limb with poly fil. Use a dowel if necessary to pack the polyfil in so that it is flush with the glass beads and prevents them from rattling around inside the limb. Top the limb off with the compatible plug. Weigh it again to see that you're somehwere in the ballpark of your desired weight. Being within plus or minus 0.5 oz is totally fine and no reason to re-weight. Step 5: Weight the Arms. Weighting the arms is just like weighting the legs. However on a newborn, the vinyl is already heavier than Real Feel Ideal weight. That's okay! Just fill your weighting material to the wrist to give the hands some bulk and weight and fill the rest with polyfil. Make sure you really pack in the polyfil so there are no air pockets or rattling beads. Weigh the stuffed arms and plugs to make sure they're similar in weight. +/- 0.5 oz variance is fine. Weight the HeadLike the limbs, we're going to add our weighting material and pack it into place with polyfil. Weight the Torso and Assemble the Baby!
23 Comments
Rebecca Walton
4/22/2017 01:08:04 am
The links for calculator are not working :(
Reply
Lori Muirhead
6/18/2017 01:38:25 pm
These goodies, you mention, where would I get them? Specifically the heart beat and breathing mechanism? Thank you
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Elizabeth Carlson
10/12/2017 08:44:08 pm
Hello,
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Charlene
7/26/2018 10:24:14 pm
Hi ... I am trying to re create a baby for my sister in law of the daughter she loss at 7 months old she passed.. her baby was 23” an 13lbs so I have a 23” doll how much should I make it weight to feel like it’s 13 lbs like her daughter was? I hope u can plz help ty
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Sandy Layton
9/27/2018 10:41:34 pm
It is my first time reborning baby dolls, and one of the baby doll size that I am making is a 7" baby doll. I was wondering if you had ever made a 7" baby doll. I would like to know about the real weight of a 7" baby. Thank you.
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Debbie
9/13/2019 09:55:22 pm
So, I'm having a toddler doll made for me. Emmy, she's 30 in long. I would like her to feel life like when I pick her up. How much should she weigh? I believe an 18 mo old would weigh somewhere around 17-18 lbs. Should my doll weigh that? How do I proportion the weights in her correctly? Should there be weights in her head,?
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Sara Lahaie
12/7/2019 02:00:55 pm
Hi Kim,
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1/19/2020 01:34:48 am
Hi
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Darla Scott
1/21/2020 09:56:25 am
Hi Kim,
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Naomi Johnson
1/24/2020 04:16:58 pm
Trying to access your weight calculator but none of your links work
Reply
Christina
2/23/2020 07:56:47 pm
I have been trying to purchase the Real Feel Weight calculator, but it had been listed as out of stock for several months, and the page will no longer load for me. Is it still available?
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Kyla
3/27/2020 05:31:40 pm
The link for the calculator is not working.
Reply
Rebecca K Belanger
4/26/2020 10:26:56 am
Hello Kim! Is your Real Feel Calculator still available? I cannot find it.
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Abby Garrison
4/28/2020 02:06:55 pm
Is the reborn weight scale available? The links are not working
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Penny
2/11/2021 08:18:47 pm
Is the reborn weight scale available? The links are not working. Thanks
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JAime jacobs
10/10/2021 07:03:29 pm
Your links to the calculator aren’t working
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Julie
1/22/2022 08:14:52 pm
Hi Kim , I was wondering if you can send me another link to calculator, I bought it about 3 and half years ago then I upgraded to an I pad and you sent me another link to down load and now I have updated to another iPad and my emails don’t go back far enough to get the download again, would you be able to send it to me again please, I use it on every baby , love it so much. Kind regards Julie
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Gineen
1/26/2022 12:29:39 pm
Are you still selling the weight calculator? If so where can I get it for windows 10?
Reply
Annette Berggreen
1/26/2022 11:54:57 pm
Dont use time on her. She is not serious at all. She has not answered on any of these comments. Its a long long time since I wrote the first time. Dont use time on this woman. Its a waste of time. Sorry.
Reply
Gayle
3/11/2022 03:07:47 am
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Jo Lindsay
9/30/2022 11:14:31 am
I would like to download your calculator but I keep getting ‘ not found’
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Chantal
11/21/2022 04:27:06 am
Dear Kim
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AuthorHi! I am Kim. I've been creating dolls all my life. I started stuffing cotton balls into my mom's pantyhose when I was a little girl. Now I hand-craft dolls that look and feel like real babies. Archives
December 2021
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