It's easy to put these necks on the Charlie and Grace dolls. Don't be intimidated by the instructions below. It only took me a minute or two to put Charlie's neck on. It will take you longer to read the instructions than it will to install the neck.

It's important to get the pieces in the correct order, so please have these instructions and photos nearby the first time you do it.

First, remove the head from the doll. Pull the head away from the neck and use scissors or a wire clipper to cut the cords and/or cable ties that hold the head on.

Do not cut or remove any of the vinyl from the doll's head. Don't try to make the opening wider or cut any of it out. The neck needs to remain intact as is, or you may never be able to put the head on any doll body again.

Using a hemostat tool, fish around inside the head and take out the small plastic piece that looks like a large button. It may be oval or round. It has two holes in it, as shown in the photo. It will most likely have some knotted elastic cord in it so remove the cord.

The button helps to hold the head on the doll. There is another piece inside the head that is also part of the stringing system: it is shaped like a frisbee. Do not remove that piece from the doll's head. It's difficult to remove it, and there's no need to remove it anyway. You can work around it. The Ashton Drake dolls have a fairly large neck hole inside that neck so it allows plenty of room to work.

Cut a length of stringing cord, approximately 10 or 12 inches so you have a good piece to work with. The photo above shows how all the pieces will be lined up when you're finished. Just imagine that the button and the "frisbee" will be inside the doll's head.

FIRST, thread the cord through the two holes in the button. Then put the button inside the doll's head.

Now, you will need to go fishing with the hemostats. Poke the hemostats through the center hole in the frisbee piece, and grab the cord. Pull the two ends of the cord through the frisbee and out the neck hole of the head. Pull everything together firmly.

NEXT, thread the cord through the hole in the top of the plastic neck dome. The cord will now be inside the replacement neck. Pull everything together firmly, so the dome of the replacement neck nestles into the neck basin of the dolls head.

Thread a large wood bead onto one piece of the cord and push it inside the replacement neck. The bead serves as an extender, so you can tie a knot more easily. Pull VERY FIRMLY on the elastic cord so the head and neck are together tight. Then tie a nice big knot below the wood bead. Tie it several times so everything is secure. Cut off the extra cord.

Now you can attach the doll's cloth body as usual, with a cable tie nestled into the groove. The groove is positioned just under the edge of Charlie's neck so the head will overlap the neck of the doll body a bit. We did this on purpose since Charlie's chin is so low. (The elastic cord is stretchy so that allows for some leeway in positioning the neck, as well.)

The head turns easily on it's new neck, so you can pose the head left and right.

 

Necks are intended to be used with cloth doll bodies only, and you do need to use the ultra narrow strap ties to apply the cloth body.

---

BACK  

REMOVE LIMBS

With a craft knife carefully cut down the side of the vinyl body from the underside of each arm to the top of each leg. Be careful not to cut the limbs . Once this is done the arms and legs will pop out easily .Next ,to remove head & neck cut around body below neck making sure you leave enough vinyl to attach cloth body later (see picture "A")

      

 

REMOVE NECK FROM HEAD

If you want to remove Graces head from her neck to do any internal reborning you will need 2  heavy duty cable ties.

You may need another person to help with the next part .Pull the head away from the neckpiece and you will see that there is a cable tie threaded through a thick piece of white elastic in her head . You will need to thread a new cable tie through this bit of elastic and secure it before cutting the original cable tie . This will release her head from the neckpiece . Be careful doing this because if you lose the disc inside graces head it will be very difficult to get it back again

                                      

THREADING CABLE TIE THROUGH ELASTIC                                        CUTTING EXISTING CABLE TIE

You will now be left with cable tie protruding from the head which is attached to a disc inside. This will have to be pushed out of the way while you are working

THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE  AFTER DISASSEMBLY

 

REATTACH HEAD AND NECK

To reattach head to neck thread the other heavy duty cable tie back through the disc that goes under neckpiece .Then back through neckpiece itself . Then thread it through elastic on head attachment. Remove temporary cable tie. Pull new cable tie tight and head will be reattached as it was before  (see diagram + photo below)

SEE PHOTO BELOW

THIS PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE HEAD AND NECK ASSEMBLY TO COMPLIMENT THE DIAGRAM ABOVE 

AT THIS STAGE YOU WOULD CUT AND REMOVE THE CABLE TIE ( STILL SHOWN ) YOU FITTED ORIGINALLY  

 THEN PULL TIGHT , CUT OFF EXCESS FROM END OF CABLE TIE BUT LEAVE A LITTLE END ( DO NOT CUT FLUSH) 

 

 

ATTACH JOINTS TO CLOTH BODY

 

To attach arms & legs to cloth body carefully undo the the knot in the thick white elastic and remove  the two discs. (BE CAREFUL NOT TO PULL THE ELASTIC OUT OF LIMB )   Thread the two ends of elastic through holes in cloth body ,reattach the two discs and tie tightly as they were before