About a month ago, Miriam Shepard (of YumYum Couture) posted this ingenious tutorial for fixing Tonner's full-body hangers so they actually hold clothes! I've been using her method with great success. The following is Miriam's original post, complete with photos (used with permission):
Why in the world did Tonner design hangers for his trunks that do not function for 90% of the clothing he makes? I love the look of the plexiglass body hangers but the shoulders won't hold the clothing in place so I figured out a way to make clear plastic shoulders for the hangers that make them work and aren't an eyesore. I wish Tonner would take up my idea and make these himself with cute little TW insignias to fit his hangers. Dream on Miriam.
You will need:
One of those clear plastic boxes that UB Tylers come in. Cut it up along the fold lines.
Strong scissors
An Exacto knife or cutting blade
paper to make a pattern.
Make a pattern from paper. Cut a rectangle that is 2 inches wide and 3 and 5/8s inches wide. Fold it in half lengthwise. Trim the corners on two sides as shown in the picture below.
Use your paper pattern as a guide to cut your plastic. I find it is easiest to cut the plastic box into panels and then cut them into 3 and 5/8s inch sections and then fold the sections lengthwise and trim to 1 inch folded. Finally, trim the "shoulders". After folding and trimming the plastic, use the Xacto knife to cut through the fold so that the body hanger will slip through and the plastic shoulders slide down in place on the "shoulders of the hanger. See the pics: This is a dress falling off the Tonner hanger. Boooooo!
You will need:
One of those clear plastic boxes that UB Tylers come in. Cut it up along the fold lines.
Strong scissors
An Exacto knife or cutting blade
paper to make a pattern.
Make a pattern from paper. Cut a rectangle that is 2 inches wide and 3 and 5/8s inches wide. Fold it in half lengthwise. Trim the corners on two sides as shown in the picture below.
Use your paper pattern as a guide to cut your plastic. I find it is easiest to cut the plastic box into panels and then cut them into 3 and 5/8s inch sections and then fold the sections lengthwise and trim to 1 inch folded. Finally, trim the "shoulders". After folding and trimming the plastic, use the Xacto knife to cut through the fold so that the body hanger will slip through and the plastic shoulders slide down in place on the "shoulders of the hanger. See the pics: This is a dress falling off the Tonner hanger. Boooooo!
Here are pics of the pattern and of the clear plastic shoulders
More pics of the process:
Finally, the dress is hanging on the new shoulders which look good with the plexiglass hanger.
Brilliant, right? I love it! Of course, I only have six full-body hangers myself, so I can only hang up six outfits, right? Wrong! I modified Miriam's method to make my own hangers, as well! See, I'm a huge packrat. You know those tiny plastic hooks that come on packages of things like socks, tights, or ties so that they hang on the pegs on store shelves? Well, I keep those.
I always knew I would have a use for them! And now I finally do:
They make excellent hangers! The top one, being already over 4" long, is perfect for hanging a top by the straps. Then I made plastic "shoulders" for some, and "hips" for others - these hang skirts or pants. I made my "hips" 3" wide, which worked perfectly:
Now you may be wondering, if this tutorial was posted a month ago, why am I just getting around to making my hangers now? Well, before this week, I didn't really have a place to hang doll clothes. But I came back from a trip to Goodwill with this... well, I'm not entirely sure what it is:
The smaller one is an old candlestick of my mom's. Anyway, they look really good full of doll clothes:
Sayuri browses for an outfit to wear:
Poor girl is still waiting for me to finish her red kimono... one of these days!
