I’ve completed the sleeper set; my first completed set! Meet my little dreamers.
My first, and probably only ever, complete outfit set!
The Sleeper outfit (#2) is one of the original 1983 Series outfits and has the least number of letters used in the clothing codes. It is the ‘easiest’ to collect all the different versions. Although I have a few that are recorded as being produced by two factories, I have decided that my ‘set’ is complete with one example of each letter. (AKA, one of each colour)
As this outfit was only produced for one year, and I am an A-type personality, I wanted to make sure the kids and the clothing matched. Therefore, the majority of these kids are 1983 bald kids, and the clothing factory matches the doll’s factory. It took me quite some time to find the last kid, Walker. I’ve had his sleeper for over a year!
Outfits may look the same, but take a closer look. There may be more differences than you thought.. Learn more about WHY I want to record all the factory variations when it comes to CPK outfits.
You get a new outfit, and you wander over to Hilary’s Cabbage Patch Clothes Closet to see if it’s already been recorded. You look at the spreadsheet. Yep! The red and white gingham dress is already there.
But wait! You’ve only looked at the description. You still need to check the factory! What if the one you have was made by a different factory? This is important!
“But why?”, you ask. Well, this is why.
I have four swing dresses that look almost identical but were all made by different factories and use three different clothing codes. How can I record all of the outfits if I don’t know how many factories made each outfit?
The WW and SS factory dresses are 1Q. The PMI dress is 1S. The P dress is 1G.
I have noted in the past that letters P, Q, and R have the primary factory SS and tend to replicate previous letters in pattern/style/colour. In this case, the swing dress PMI letters S and T have as many as six different patterns/looks for only two letters. It’s a mess! To learn more about the multiple PMI dresses, visit PTP: An abundance of patterns – PMI swing dresses.
This may explain why they all look almost the same, but more importantly, how do you tell them apart?
Differences
The lace on the sleeves of the PMI dress is gathered. None of the other versions have this.
The PMI dress is sewn with red thread (to match the dress). The others are all done with white thread.
The SS dress has elastic in the sleeves. The others don’t.
The fabric of the collar of the WW dress is lighter, not as heavy/thick as the other three.
The width, fabric weight, and shade of red of the ribbons vary by factory, although this may also be fabric lot variability.
How wide the lace at the sleeves is varies by the factory.
The WW dress has a Taiwanese silk label. The others are China factories.
By knowing the factory of the dress, you can determine if it’s potentially original to the doll and/or what factory the doll may be.
The Mystery Dress
I have a 5th dress, but this one is different from the others. I can’t remember where I got it from, and for some reason, I had originally labelled it WS. Based on the Velcro, I would label it WS. However, it has no tag. It doesn’t look like a tag was ever removed.
Is it a factory fluke? Is it handmade? Is it an aftermarket copy? Is there some other explanation?
Although very similar to the others, it has some significant differences too.
For the most part, it is the same size, pattern, and fabric. It even has a silk label, but . . .
The silk tag looks odd, not like any of the others.
The collar isn’t white, it’s the dress’s gingham pattern.
The ribbon is made of actual ribbon, not fabric.
There is no ‘flap’ of fabric at the V of the collar.
The sleeves have elastic (similar to the SS dress, but unlike any of the others).
The sewing was done by machine, but the finishing is slightly different from all the others.
I believe this to be an amazing handmade replica of a classic Swing Dress. What do you think?
Happy Birthday to me!! Thanks to a friend I’ve got more space for kids. 🙂
I’ve wanted to put up shelves in my spare room for quite a while. I wasn’t sure about doing so. I didn’t want the room to feel too cramped. However, I finally decided to just go for it!
After determining that buying pre-made shelves was too costly, I purchased wood shelves and the brackets and did it myself! (Well, a friend helped me a LOT!)
She came over to help me celebrate my birthday, and we spent the day putting them up and moving around kids. It was a great cabbie day! Special thanks to Michelle for all her patience and encouragement on this project.
The best part, the project gave me more closet space for the CPK clothes! I added a whole new hanging rod.
I thought a post on pacifiers would be simple . . .I should have known!
Which dolls used which paci’s, which didn’t, and the colours they came in. It’s all here!
I thought this post would be short and simple. I was wrong.
Coleco used several different pacifiers for Cabbage Patch dolls, and many others were used by other companies who produced CPK’s after them. This is an overview of Coleco pacifiers and a few made by other companies.
Original Hard Yellow Pacifier
These were produced from the very beginning in 1983. They have a factory code located in a small circle on the neck of the handle, close to the disk, on one side. They are used for HM#4 and HM#6. Originally many came with a cardboard disk between the doll’s face and the pacifier, which warns the pacifiers are not intended for use by children.
All of the ‘foreign factories’ had HM#4 kids, but none produced HM#6. Foreign pacifiers do not have factory information on the neck. (Ref#3, p. 456)
Designer Line kids were briefly produced with HM #4 (Ref#3, p. 170) and Cornsilk kids were briefly produced with HM#6, but none of these dolls came with a pacifier. They were considered ‘older’ and so did not need them. (Ref#3, p. 150) However, due to collector preference for pacifier kids, you will often find these kids with pacifiers that an owner has added.
Although common cabbie knowledge says that these pacifiers were also used with Toddlers, I haven’t been able to come up with one example/MIB picture where a kid came with one. Did your Toddler? I now believe they only came with the soft pacifiers (see below). (Ref#2, p. 98 – 101, Ref#3, p. 167-168),
These pacifiers can break, most often at the neck or the handle. Care should be taken when inserting and removing them from the doll’s mouth.
Soft Vinyl Pacifier
These pacifiers are used by Babies (aka BBBs) and Toddlers with HM#4 and HM#6 (same as above). Toddlers with pacifiers were not produced for very long. (Ref#3, p. 167) Although made of vinyl like the original pacifiers, these ones are made of soft vinyl and have an oval-shaped handle. The factory information is located on the middle right half of the disk, on the protuberance side.
Known factory codes are: F1, F2, WS1, and WS2.
As only the SS and WS factories made Babies (BBBs) (except for the VERY rare P factory BBB), I theorize that the F pacifiers were made for or by, the SS factory and that the WS factory made the WS pacifiers. Interestingly, F pacifiers say ‘Made in H.K.’, and WS pacifiers say ‘Made in China’. These pacifiers started production in 1986, long after Coleco moved production out of Hong Kong, so maybe a factory in Hong Kong did produce F pacifiers. It’s an interesting mystery. To sum up, if this is true, F pacifiers go with SS kids, and WS pacifiers go with WS kids. No idea where the P factory pacifiers would come from. 🙂
Coloured soft vinyl pacifiers were used from 1988/9 to 1992ish when Hasbro produced them. Below are pictures of all the colours I have, and I’ve also seen red ones.
Unfortunately, these pacifiers, like anything vinyl, can develop vinyl discolouration (pox), but I have only seen this in the original transparent yellow ones. By the time they started making the coloured ones, they likely had this problem fixed. Unfortunately, unlike the dolls, I have been unsuccessful in treating this discolouration with zit cream.
Furskin Pacifier
Thistle Furskin came with a pacifier. As far as I am aware, she’s the only one that did. Her pacifiers look a lot like a BBB soft pacifier, except everything is larger, especially the protuberance.
Furskin vs. BBB pacifier
Packaged Pacifiers
Hard pacifiers also came separately packaged, generally with a baby rattle. These pacifiers have the factory code “F” on them. Hmmm . . . did the same factory make the F1 and F2 soft pacifiers? I wonder.
Other Information
There is a wonderful collector who makes and sells 3D printed cabbie pacifiers, along with a variety of other cabbie-related items. Click here to visit.
The kids love them!
Hasbro Birthday kids don’t use pacifiers even though they look like they could. They use noisemakers.
Courtesy of greywolf0505.
Owners would often drill holes into the mouth of a non-pacifier doll to ‘modify it’ for the use of a pacifier. This is not a recommended practice, but it still happens today.
Aftermarket and ‘homemade’ pacifiers are quite common. People have been improvising pacifiers for kids for decades! One of the most common is the ‘ring’ portion from a Ring Pop!
Courtesy of Cathi Timinski.
Courtesy of Jessica Hubbard.
Other Random Pacifiers
(not comprehensive)
Some Softies came with removable or non-removable pacifiers. For more information on this type of pacifier kid, you can visit the FB group, The Soft Face Place.
Photo source unknown.
My Own Baby (Hasbro 1991 – 92): These used coloured BBB pacifiers in red, blue, yellow, and purple. They were attached to their outfits with a ribbon. These kids came with head moulds B20, B22, B27, and B29. (Ref#1, p. 44-46)
Baby Blanket Surprise (Hasbro, 1994): They have their own heart-shaped pacifier, which came in various colours. These kids came in head moulds BX1 – 3. (Ref#1, p. 53).
Mattel Babies (Mattel, 1995 – 98): These dolls came with their own type of pacifier (Ref#1, p. 74-75). Often their mouth shape doesn’t actually accommodate the pacifier. They came in head mould CB4. (Eugelke, p. 17)
Mattel Newborn (Mattel, 1998): These dolls came with their own pacifier but it doesn’t actually stay in their mouth (Eugelke, p. 9A).
Babyland Exclusive Pacifiers (unknown dates)
Alexandra and Troy, Babyland Exclusive Preemies.
Play Along Babies (Play Along 2005/2006): These kids came with pacifiers that look like smaller versions of the BLE pacifiers and come in a variety of colours. (Eugelke, p. 12)
Messy Face kids (Play Along, 2007): These kids came with pacifiers that look like smaller versions of the BLE pacifiers and come in a variety of colours. (Eugelke , p. 15)
My First Steps (Play Along, 2007): These kids came with pacifiers that look like smaller versions of the BLE pacifiers and come in a variety of colours. (Eugelke , p. 16)
25th Anniversary Kids (Play Along, 2008): These kids come with a pacifier that is physically similar to the original hard pacifier but is a solid and brighter yellow colour.
Other References (not linked to reference page)
Eugelke, Marie. The Pacifier Cabbage Patch Kids Through the Years 1983-2018. Handwritten. July 2020.
I started this blog because of patterns I saw in my records. Records I was keeping on my Cabbage patch collection. I recorded each doll as they came into my hands, even those I adopted out again. I have done this since almost the very beginning.
It is because of this record I know that on June 11th, 2022, I found my 1000th kid! I would like to introduce Cataleya Aubrey. She’s a 1983 #2HM long-looped lemon blonde with blue eyes. She’s an OK factory with an HK body. She’s wearing a HTF white sleeper. Defuzzing her hair took me weeks, but it was worth it!
Obviously, she’s a special lady but she is looking for a forever family. If you’re interested you can find her details here.
They’re mistake gives us another opportunity see behind the scenes of outfit production.
A few months ago Stephania Blum found a rather unique and interesting outfit and I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see it. Although Coleco outfits are generally well made using good materials, sometimes weird stuff crops up.
She figures they accidentally used the beginning or end of a fabric roll to make the blouse area of this Frilly dress (4L CC).
Another collector, Laura Fulton, ran it through Google Translate.
After some research, the text seems to say the following:
Trueran – a type of poplin fabric; can be dyed White: colour Shanghai, China: location it was produced, perhaps? Shanghai is on the coast of the East China Sea and producers would have had easy access to the ports there. (Update Note: Google translate didn’t quite get it right, the word Lixi is not there. Special Thanks to Kylie Redfern for the new information)
This is a CC factory outfit so it never came on a kid. It’s just a fluke that they used the fabric in such as way that it was completely legible!
This cat is lounging where it shouldn’t be! Any theories?
. . . and this one is VERY odd! (Update: Mystery solved below)
Has anyone ever seen a cat patch on a denim romper? This is a boxed 1983 OK factory kid in a 1983 denim romper (see Beneficial Buttons for more info) with a random cat patch on it. This outfit does NOT come with a patch on it! (See PTP: Plentiful Patches Pt. 1) The owner said she got him like this.
Update: Mystery mostly solved! This little man is Jesmar and that makes all the sense! Jesmar did some rather weird stuff with their outfits. For details, visit Jesmars and J Clothing . Now, why someone at the Jesmar factory decided to do it . . .who knows?
Special thanks to Amy London for bringing this kid to my attention and providing the picture.
No posts lately but work is still being done! Take a look at what the cabbie community has helped me add to the research. Are any of the updates interesting to you?
I have spent quite a bit of time lately getting caught up on all the information everyone has sent me recently. It’s been amazing! I’ve been able to update so much and there are a bunch of posts still to come.
So, to let you know what’s changed here are the updates so far:
Updated 36 of the outfit spreadsheets with over 100 outfits recorded
The kids got dressed early today for the fireworks. They wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone. So, we did a photo shoot. Aubrey Kaylyn offered to just wear a pin as her outfit was perfect to celebrate with anyway. They are all proud Canadians now, although some were born in other countries, some very far away.
Wherever you are, whoever you are, Be Loud, Be Proud, Be Happy!
Precious and cozy, these pajamas’s are so cute. If you’ve got the slippers you’re lucky!
This series consists of five outfits, four for girls and one for boys. They are all a type of pyjamas. The girl’s outfits are all made of flannel and come with fuzzy pink slippers. Like with some other series, the boy’s outfit is unique.
Although their code numbers start with a 6, generally indicating that they came out in 1986, most of those I’ve seen mint-in-box are in 1987 boxes. I hypothesize that they were sold in 1987 or even late 1986 into 1987. Most sources list them as being sold in 1987. (Ref# 3, p. 160) These outfits are not common, so I don’t believe they were produced for very long. They are very hard to find with slippers now.
They were all made by the KT factory. There’s only one version of each outfit, and they were not made by any other factory. I believe I have this series entirely recorded, although I could use a better picture of outfit #693 with the slippers.
Girl’s PJ’s
689 – Bon-Bon Two-Piece PJs
This outfit has a dress-like top with matching pants. The fabric pattern is pastel-coloured bonbons and it has a V-neck with two purple buttons and a purple bow.
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
690 – NO OUTFIT
691 – Two Piece Sheep PJs
This outfit has a dress-like top and matching pants. The fabric pattern is pastel-coloured pink and blue sheep with flowers. The yoke has three bows; pink, teal, and purple.
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
692 – Ruffled gown
This gown is white with a pink flower pattern and three buttons at the neck. The neck area has a lot of ruffles, and there is a ruffle running around the hem, a few inches from the bottom.
Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.
693 – Striped gown
This gown has a large white bib front with three buttons. The remainder of the gown is a thick stripe pattern in pastel shades of teal, pink, and white. There is a ruffle around the bib, and the bottom hem is white with pink hearts.
Boy’s PJ Outfit
694 – Nightshirt and cap
This outfit is unique within the CPK clothing world. Unlike outfits #689 – #693, this one is made of cotton, uses darker colours, and includes a nightcap and booties with suede soles. The nightcap and booties can be difficult to find.
Mimic Outfit
This outfit mimics the look of the Pajama Series and is often thought to be a part of it. Outfit #142A looks very similar but came out in 1989 as a packaged outfit. The dark colours and yellow slippers are the immediately visible differences.
Photo courtesy of Kat Pershouse.
Special thanks to Kat Perhouse for her amazing pictures.
