The hobby of creating reborn baby dolls began around 1990 when doll enthusiasts wanted more realistic dolls. Since then, an industry surrounding reborn dolls has emerged. Reborn dolls are primarily purchased on the internet but are available at fairs. Depending on craftsmanship, they range in price from hundreds to thousands of pounds (GB sterling). The International Reborn Doll Artists (IRDA) group was created to educate artists in the art form of reborn doll making. Any artist can join the association, however certain ethical guidelines must be upheld by members.A reborn doll is a manufactured vinyl play doll that has been transformed to resemble a human baby with as much realism as possible. The method of creating a reborn doll is referred to as reborning and the doll artists are referred to as reborners. Reborn dolls are also known as living dolls or unliving dolls. The art of creating reborn doll requires a number of detailed procedures and starts with disassembling the parts of a doll, removing its factory paint, packing each part to make it heavier, and putting back together again. The doll is coated with several layers of paint in different shades to create an convincing human flesh tone; then the hair, including eyebrows and eyelashes, are painstakingly rooted individually to the doll's head and face for a natural finish.
Reborn doll clothes are usually crocheted or knitted , and when you put clothes on your reborn doll it will be much the same as fitting any other doll or a real baby in fact. Instead of rushing out and purchasing lots of mismatched clothes though you should take a second to decide exactly how you want to dress your reborn doll, for example what size clothes you will need that actually fit, and how much money you are willing to invest.
If you need to get quite a few items, then keep an eye open for clothing sets. These tend to contain hats and booties, and will should be matching colours or patterns. It also means you don't have to hunt around for these accessories afterwards. It is important that you do not buy clothes that are too small. When you try to put them on the reborn, it is likely you will break some of the more dainty parts if you need to apply too much force. As reborn dolls are collectibles, it would be a pity to throw all that money down the drain for something that is easy to avoid.
There are a lot of reborn dolls clothes available that have been made by various crafters for babies and dolls alike, using crochet and knitting. They usually come with size guides or recommended age groups which are perfect for getting the right sizes you need. As they are hand knitted dolls clothes the whole outfit is usually available which means you wont need to shop from several different places to get them to match. If you still can't find what you are looking for most makers will also take requests although you may have to pay a little more for this.A good head start if you are looking for knitted baby clothes is to use a search engine like google and type in phrases such as knitted baby outfits, hand knitted baby wear or maybe something more specific like knitted hats for babies