Travel back in time to your childhood for a minute. Were you lucky enough to have played with paper dolls? Did you love how easy it was to change clothes on your paper dolls? There were so many options! Until, after what seemed like a very short amount of time, one of those little tabs broke off, rendering an already difficult-to-stay garment even more difficult to keep on!
"MOM! HOLLY HOBBIES' CLOTHES KEEP FALLING OFF!"
*sigh*
[Cue the Tardis wooshing sound]
Now that I'm older, I wanted to incorporate paper dolls into our homeschool journey. But the thought of fixing those horrible little tabs over and over again, and spending all that time cutting out dolls and outfits only to have them rip? The thought was depressing.
And then I found clear contact paper.
And the maniacal villain laughter ensued. For a short "muahahahaha", not endless and annoying.
Due to my success with it, and I've used this method for about two years now with great results, I wanted to share it with you! Yes, you!
First, you need to actually have the dolls/outfits in hand in their original form (for this example, I'm using Dover's Ancient Greek paper dolls), tape, clear contact paper (look for it with the shelf liner in your local stores), scissors, and time. Even two minutes at a shot will eventually land you with some heavy-duty paper dolls, just keep plugging away!
Cut out your dolls, making sure to leave them in a rectangular section (this makes it easier, I speak from experience here!).
Measure out how big of a piece of contact paper you need to cut from the roll (I just roll the contact paper out on top of the piece and eyeball it, making sure to be a little more generous than stingy). Cut the piece off of the roll and oh-so-carefully remove the paper backing and lay it out on top of the paper. Everyone has their own method, just keep in mind that you don't want to crinkle the contact paper and that even if you end up with a bubble or a little wrinkle, your children probably aren't as picky about it as you are; if they are, let them try one and if they do a better job, make them do it, if they don't do a better job, at least they'll quiet down the grumpiness.
You can cover just the front side of the dolls if you want. I've found that the dolls tend to be more rugged and a backside covering really isn't all that helpful unless you have some very thin dolls. Dover prints their dolls on cardstock, but if you print some off of the Internet, it's bound to be thinner and needing that extra layer of contact paper.
Now, cut them out! Oh, how pretty they look! I'd show you a picture of mine, but my little point-and-shoot camera decided to fuzz the picture. Oh well, this gives you more time to admire your own!
Now, I'm jumping ahead to the outfits. Same process, but with a little bit of a twist.
Yes, I cut around the outfit instead of staying in a rectangle. And yes, it took more time. However, it made for a better picture to give you an idea of where my contact paper edges were. A small price to pay to be a better teacher, right? AND you can see that all those pesky tabs were chopped off. Don't worry, you don't need them with this method as you will see.
The front of your doll's outfit has now been covered. While you could simply slap a layer of contact paper on the back, you're not going to do yourself a "teachable moment" favor by doing so.
If you have a Dover paper doll book, you'll notice that inside the back cover is a long descriptive section concerning each outfit (when it was used, what any special accessories were for, etc.). I tried writing the description reference numbers on earlier paper dolls, but that cover eventually gets lost/torn/discarded/used as a makeshift dustpan. Then, those little descriptions are lost!
My solution? Cut them out and tape them to each outfit itself! (Simple, yes; if you're not juggling three children and a household, stop laughing that it took me so long to figure this one out.)
Cutting out the descriptions
Determining placement
I just use a little rolled-up piece of tape to situate the descriptions and keep them from moving in the next step.
Get that roll of contact paper back up to the counter and off the floor, measure out how much you need and cut the piece off of the roll. Again, oh-so-carefully place it on the backside of your doll's outfit and roll out the bubbles that appear around the descriptions.
Then cut!
Now comes the ease-of-use part.
Using a small piece of rolled-up tape (as I used in this picture) or, better yet, buy a pack of Tac 'N Stik (which we prefer, but was nowhere to be found at the time of picture taking because "Not Me" ran off with the pack).
Put your choice of adhesive (tape, Tac 'N Stik) on the doll.
And place the outfit on top. Give it a nice pat to adhere and you're done!
Like I said, I've used this method for a couple of years now with great results. The Little House on the Prairie dolls/dollhouse has survived two years of frequent play (although the edges are a bit dog-eared now, so I'll probably be buying a new set before long), so I figured that it was one of those money-saving educational blips to pass on to others!
Enjoy!
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