Doll Prosthetic Leg
This prosthetic leg is for a Lottie doll. You can adapt it for different types of doll or a dolls arm if you like.
Preparing
Gather your materials, you will need:
-Staples gel medium pen
-B2P pilot ball medium pen (or another pen that fits)
-a hook- the curved bit of the hook should be a bit under 25mm not including the screw on top
-hacksaw
-pliers
-drill
-hot glue and gun
-and of course a doll!
Prepare the patient in comfy clothes and in a nice bed.
-Staples gel medium pen
-B2P pilot ball medium pen (or another pen that fits)
-a hook- the curved bit of the hook should be a bit under 25mm not including the screw on top
-hacksaw
-pliers
-drill
-hot glue and gun
-and of course a doll!
Prepare the patient in comfy clothes and in a nice bed.
Begin the Surgery....
First, cut the leg below the knee, it doesn’t matter if you cut it a bit wonky first time. Keep the bottom part of the leg for later. Then, cut the leg again just above the knee as straight as you can.
Making the Stump
Unscrew the end of the “staples gel medium” pen. Use hot glue to carefully glue this onto the end of the dolls leg to make the stump. Afterwards, drill a hole horizontally right through the stump you have made. If you are a child please ask an adult to help you with any hot gluing, cutting, sawing or drilling!
The First Prosthetic Leg....
Make the first prosthetic using the “B2P pilot ball medium” pen. There is a picture of the label above. Unscrew the front of the pen. Then saw of the screw thread (the swirly bit that screws on the front of the pen that holds the ink cartridge in)- I didn’t take a picture of this so the one shown above is on a different pen.
Fitting the Prosthetic
Drill inside the the pen until the wider part fits over some of the stump. Take the bottom part of the original leg and cut around the ankle making sure to leave about a centimetre of the inside bit of leg poking out of the ankle. Hot glue the foot into the thinner part of the leg. We used the original foot so the shoes still fitted and because some prosthetics have a more realistic foot on the end.
Bending Knees?
To make the knee bend, cut with a hacksaw at an angle to make the shape in the picture above on the back of the knee. To attach the leg, drill two holes inline with the ones in the stump. Put a piece of wire through all four holes and fold the ends down. To remove the prosthetic just slide out the wire!
Running Blade
To make running blade for an athletic doll: use pliers to bend a hook slightly straighter into the blade shape. Take the lid of the “staples gel medium” pen and cut down to size and drill a hole in the bottom. Saw the long part of the hook off if it’s too long. Screw the hook into the hole in the bottom of the lid and hot glue it there. Drill holes inline with the ones in the stump and attach in the same way. Making the blades knee bend is optional- we didn’t. I hope I explained this ok!
Recovery
The patients leg should be bandaged whilst the stump heals. It will be some time before the prosthetic is fitted, in this time, the patient should use a wheelchair to get around and begin physiotherapy as soon as possible. After a long wait (or 5 minutes if your impatient like me) the prosthetic leg will be fitted. The patient should clean the stump and the inside of the prosthetic daily to stop infections. Lottie doll named Autumn is back to doing gymnastics already! I hope your doll a speedy recovery and happy building! :D