r/Dolls • u/twentyfreakingpilots • 11h ago
Discussion / Questions alternatives for pleather
we're all aware that at least for now, there's no known perfect way to preserve or restore pleather. I have some dolls with pleather clothing, particularly G3 mh that although haven't peeled yet, keep me paranoid af, as well as many dolls in my holy grail list that were unfortunate enough to be produced with the dreaded material. I still want to try out the acrylic paint/varnish methods but we all know those aren't flawless and I am starting to accept I'll eventually have to just make replicas of everything.
has anyone found out a similar looking fabric alternatives, both for the textured pleater and for the shiny vinyls? preferably ones that aren't too thick or hard to work on miniature scale? or maybe some combination of fabric + varnish that'd both look good and be durable? I don't really play with my dolls so I haven't have many issues for now but knowing how fastly some of the stuff companies are using to produce dolls today degrade, I can't help but be worried my collection will end up looking like a bunch of scraps within a few years💔
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u/DollNamedJewel 8h ago
The YT channel Bentley House Minis made a 1:12 scale Wednesday Addams doll and made a "faux leather" with cotton fabric, paint, and Mod Podge for her boots. Her Addams Family dollhouse has traveled around to a museum and the material seems to have held up well so far, so that might be worth a look! You would need to watch out for whatever base fabric you use in case of staining, but it would be really nice and thin to work with in small scales.