Grace was graceful enough to let me take photos to show you what I am talking about when I say I am finishing up babies. When I take their portraits you cannot see that the strings holding them together are left as I first tied them. What happens is I can pull the strings through the casings tight enough with the first couple attempts. As I work up the body, my hands are giving out by the time I get to the arms and especially the neck. If I know where the baby is going I can decide if she is stuffed properly, if she is tied together securely enough and then to make a final decision on the sleeper to send with her. To finish her I need to make these decisions and then test the neck knot.

The first test is to see if the head is one securely enough. I do this by putting on the two strings so  see how much baby neck is exposed. Here, as you can see, this is too much. With pointed scissors I work loose the knot and prepare to retie it. Part of that process is to check to see I want to make any changes in the placement of the eyes or the stuffing in the head.

I pull on the strings to see if it is tight enough or if I must open it and redo the knot. If the first knot shows signs of relaxing or slipping, I will put a dab of UHU solid glue on the strings so when I pull the knot up the sticky stuff on the strings stop them from slipping. Then I tie the knot again. Those long strings are there for a reason. I then wrap them around the neck making sure they are slipped in tightly against the neck groove. First I wrap one string, knot it off and then going in the opposite direction, repeat the process with the other string. Here you can see the string lying in the groove. Then I clip off the extra and work my way around the neck with clumps of glue on a toothpick and force the glue between the vinyl and the fabric. The string tails are then smoothed into this glue mass so there are no fuzzy ends sticking up. Then with a damp tissue I wipe up any extra glue and make sure the dolly is clean again,

With the neck secure I move down to the strings on the arms. Here you can see how I use the pointed scissors to open the knot. The photo is slightly out of focus because I clicking on the close up lens which I thought would allow me to do that. Obviously there is something new to learn about this camera.  What is in better focus is the way I glue down the string ends - here on the neck.

I test every knot and redo the ones that do not pass inspection. Usually I can get the first leg knots done tightly enough but then my hands give out or my energy wains and I can no longer tie the knots as tightly as I think they should be. Yesterday I had a great day and was able to get these four babies finalized and back to the table to dry the new glue. Thank goodness 98% of it is in the body part-grooves so I do not have to worry about them sticking to the quilt.