Hilary's Cabbage Patch Clothes Closet
Learning about 1980's Cabbage Patch Kid clothing.
This is how I repair a hole in the fabric of a Cabbage Patch Kid. Hope it helps in some way.
I’ve posted a new video on how I repair holes in the body fabric. The video itself is a bit rough as it was done rather quickly but I believe the information is all there. The link is also available in the right side menu under “Hilary’s How-to Videos”.
Please keep in mind I am NOT an expert in this stuff. This is just how I do it. You do what works for you.
You’ve got 4 pairs of CPK jeans that you just washed. They’re all slightly different. Which ones goes with this outfit?? Maybe this will help.
Outfit #10 – Windbreaker Outfit
Identifying Outfit #10 Windbreakers by factory
Identifying Windbreaker Outfit (#10) shirts
These pants are the bane of my A-type personality. It’s VERY difficult to differentiate one pair of jeans from the other. Jeans are never tagged. Some of the factory differences are VERY subtle. It’s also hard to find correct information as you have to get it from a MIB kid to know the jeans are correct. Jeans can be switched out so easily and it’s done frequently.
As a consequence, this section is rather sparse. Here’s what I know.
I’ve never actually seen these. I just have pictures.
Alert: When cleaning CPK jeans, soak them separately from all other fabrics as the dye runs extensively.
Why know how to identify the factory of an outfit #10 shirt, after all, they’re tagged! But, what if you can’t see the tag in the picture? What if it’s been cut off?
Outfit #10 – Windbreaker Outfit
Identifying Outfit #10 Windbreakers by factory
Identifying jeans by factory
There isn’t much information here as I have observed very few factory differences in the shirts.
The striped shirts from the Windbreaker Outfit (#10) appear to come in two fabrics.
Version 1: A thin cotton t-shirt material. Known factories: OK
Version 2: A thicker synthetic material. Known factories: P, PMI, LF, IJ, WW
In general, Version 2 tends to be larger (physically) than Version 1.
I don’t know much about the shirts that come with the foreign outfits except for Jesmar outfits.
Jesmar shirts are sometimes solidly coloured but are generally striped. However, the colours are not always ways and [insert colour here]. I also have one shirt recorded that’s white with small polka dots. They are often a very thin fabric, are badly sewn with very thin hems, and have unfinished bottom hems. Some also have typical Jesmar Velcro.
The shirt for the 25th Anniversary Windbreaker outfit likely doesn’t have a tag in it. It will be purple and white. However, I can’t confirm this as I’ve never actually seen it myself. This is the only girl’s 25th Anniversary outfit I don’t own.
The shirt for outfit #100 is blue and white striped and the most obvious difference from outfit #10 shirt is the red CPK logo on the chest.
What jacket goes with which shirt in the CPK Windbreaker outfit #10? Which factory made which jacket? Find out!
Outfit #10 – Windbreaker Outfit
Identifying striped windbreaker shirts by factory
Identifying windbreaker outfit jeans by factory
The majority of CPK windbreaker jackets from outfit #10 aren’t tagged. If the jacket gets separated from the original outfit, it can be difficult to tell which shirt/jeans go with it. The shirts are tagged. So, if you can figure out the jacket’s factory, you can match it to the right shirt.
You can use the following characteristics to help determine which factory made a jacket.
Keep in mind that this list is not comprehensive. It is only based on what I can confirm as of publication. I always appreciate getting new or conflicting information.
There are two types of hems: exposed elastic and enclosed elastic.
Exposed elastic is visible and is attached using two lines of sewing. Known factories: OK, IJ
Enclosed elastic isn’t visible. It is enclosed in jacket fabric. It is a large strip of elastic, which is only sewn into the jacket at either end. Known factories: P, PMI, KT, LF
All Coleco zippers are plastic with a metal pull, and most have KKK on the zipper pull. I have found VKK on some P factory zippers, but not all. If you have another zipper on your jacket, it is likely from a foreign factory (See below) or is aftermarket
The logo seems to vary the most. There are two basic versions. One sits at almost 90 degrees from the zipper and bottom hem. The other is at more of an angle/curve.
The logos also come in varying sizes and shades of green. In some cases, they just look a bit different. Here are the logos that I have identified so far.
Jesmar: The logo is different. It has a shadow outline and is smaller than the OK one. It is applied quite far from the zipper. These jackets tend to be very thin fabric. The zipper pull is a different shape.
Lily Ledy: These jackets seem to come with a zipper or button closure or no closure system at all. For jackets with a zipper, the pull is very distinctive in shape.
Triang Pedigree: These jackets have a wide white zipper but the pull itself is silver metal.
Tsukuda: According to my records, Tsukuda jackets close with velcro. I would like to confirm this.
Special thanks to Andrea’s Cabbie-kids for some of the previous pictures and information.
> In the only two examples of KT windbreaker outfits that I have, the tag is in the jacket, not the shirt. So, if you get a shirt without a tag, it must be KT.
> One 25th Anniversary outfit was the windbreaker outfit. It’s purple. Here is a comparison of the PA windbreaker versus a Coleco OK jacket.
> Outfit #100 is a windbreaker outfit. The most obvious and unmistakable difference in the jacket is the lack of a logo. The outfit tag is in the jacket, not the shirt.
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!
For more information on this outfit visit #2 – Sleeper and for more information on the series it comes from visit 1983 Series – The 1st CPK Clothes .
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?
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.
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 . . .
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.
What do you think?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hasbro Birthday kids don’t use pacifiers even though they look like they could. They use noisemakers.
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!
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.
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)
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.
Eugelke, Marie. The Pacifier Cabbage Patch Kids Through the Years 1983-2018. Handwritten. July 2020.
I can’t believe I reached 1000!!
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!
Thank you for sharing your find Stephania.
