PTP: Cats get into odd places . . . (Updated)

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.

Precious CPK Pajamas

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.

Red haired, blue eyed girl with a retainer two piece PJ outfit with sheep on it and fuzzy pink slippers. She's sitting in a yellow and aqua 1987-1989 box.

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.

Picture of a tag for outfit 694, KT factory.

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.

Outfit #689. Two piece PJ set with bonbons on it and fuzzy pink slippers. — 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.

Two piece PJ set with sheep and flowers on them. There are fuzzy pink flowers. — 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.

CPK PJ gown, #692 with pink and green flower pattern and fuzzy pink slippers. — 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.

Flannel CPK gown, #693. It has thick pink, aqua and white stripes.

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.

Cotton two piece PJ outfit with teddy bears and in red, yellow, and blue. It comes with yellow fuzzy slippers. — Photo courtesy of Kat Pershouse.

Special thanks to Kat Perhouse for her amazing pictures.

PTP: If you love something, set it free

If you love something, set it free . . .

See who returned to me!

I’ve had almost 1000 CPK pass through my hands since I started recording my collection. Some stayed, but most have found other homes with people who love them. This is Amber Casey, kid #91, adopted around 1997 from a flea market. She was my third Bean Butt Baby and came to me in a cute little yellow dress.

Picture of Amber Casey, a BBB kid, wearing a yellow knit BBB dress, yellow baby socks and a green BBB pacifier. Her dress is dirty. — Amber Casey, Kid #91

At this time, I was a teenager and knew next to nothing about Cabbage Patch Kids except what I could find on internet WebRings. It wasn’t much, but I soaked it all up like a sponge.

Over time I moved into my own place and continued collecting. Eventually, I just didn’t have enough room to keep all the dolls, so I started to adopt some out. Amber was amongst them, likely finding a new home sometime between 2012 and 2014.

Skip forward to 2022

My mother has always been an enabler for me. She often finds dolls at thrift stores or yard sales, and it’s wonderful! In March she sent a picture of yet another kid she’d found at a thrift store in town. She was dirty but a non-poxy BBB kid, so I was excited. It would be more than a month before I would finally get home to see her in detail.

I was surprised to see that the dress the doll was wearing was a VHTF Thailand BBB outfit. It was the same as one I had accidentally sold many years earlier, without knowing what I had. I never thought to own any of those outfits again, so this was very exciting.

NOTE: Thailand BBB outfits were only identified within the last year.

Later that day I was showing my sister a picture of the ‘outfit that got away’ and the replacement Mom had found. Our conversation went something like this:

Sister – “Isn’t that the same doll?”
Me – “Of course it’s not. I sold that doll like 10 years ago!”
Sister – “But look, it’s got the same mark on the head and stain on the dress. It’s smaller, but the stain is in the same spot. Where did Mom get it?”
Me – “At the local thrift store . . .”

Of course, she was right. I quickly looked up my records on the BBB with the rare outfit that I had adopted out, and it was the same doll, down to the “rust coloured mark” on her head.

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours.
If they don’t, they never were.”
Kahlil Gibran

Apparently, I’ve been collecting so long I’m starting to adopt kids I’ve already adopted out! I think I’ll keep her this time. Welcome home, Amber Casey.

Update! – July 2022

A wonderful and skilled member of our Cabbie community has gifted Amber the remainder of her outfit! I knew it was almost impossible to replace those pieces and so did this collector. She too was missing a few BBB pieces she never expected to find, so she decided to knit them herself with wonderful results!

As a beautiful surprise, she offered to knit me the bonnet and pants I was missing for Amber’s outfit as she has an original she could copy. She did so and mailed it from the other side of the world! It arrived just when I needed a major pick-me-up.

I am happy to reintroduce the newly renamed (with her permission) Amber Zoe! She’s my little ray of sunshine!

650s – Mimicking the best of 1983

Based on classic 1983 outfits, these 1986 outfits re-imagine, reinvent, and rejuvenate to create amazing new looks.

Mimic: implies a close copying, often for fun
Miriam-Webster Dictionary

Title graphic showing two 650s outfits and the 1983 series outfit that they mimic. It has the words "Same" and "Different" in capital letters.

The 1986 Mimic Series

Three of the six outfits in this 1986 series closely mimic many dresses that came before them. The other three also closely resemble earlier outfits, although not as much.

As these outfits are much harder to find than some others, they may not have been produced for long. In addition, there are only two to four variations (letters) for each outfit.

Although the outfits are numbered from #655 to #661, no #657 was produced (that I know of). They were all produced by the OK factory and used letters H, J, and K, once again skipping the letter i.

Although many of the outfits have a copyright date of 1985, an outfit number in the 600s indicates that they were sold in 1986. Based on the tags, some may have been manufactured in early 1987 as well. I speculate that an outfit with an Amsterdam, NY tag (below) was produced in late 1986 or early 1987. I have only two Amsterdam tags recorded in this series, so very few of these outfits were being produced by that time. I have no idea why they changed the number to include a /3 or /__ instead of keeping the original code. I can only speculate that they planned to change the entire outfit numbering system but quickly changed their minds. I also have an example of two slash numbers for the same outfit. I can’t explain this.

Picture of a 600s series clothing tag for the West Hardford CT location. Outfit 656H, OK factory.

Picture of a 600s series clothing tag for the Amsterdam NY location. Outfit 660/3, OK factory. The location is circled in yellow.

These outfits came on the regular yarn-haired kids, as opposed to the Cornsilk kids, which also came out that year. They came in the newer pastel-coloured boxes with the aqua birth certificates. I have no evidence that these outfits came packaged.

Boxed CPK with brown eyes and brown pigtails, HM #10 wearing outfit 658J.

Version Information

My goal is to find every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a spreadsheet showing each version of the outfits in this series that I have recorded. To understand clothing codes, factories, and variations, please refer to these posts: 1st Blog – Why do this project?, What are Clothing Tag Codes?, Factories and Companies

If you have an outfit that is not recorded here or does not match my information, I would like to hear from you. Information is best sent in the form of pictures. For details, visit Taking Clothing Tag Pics.

Outfit Information

#655 – Mimic Swing Dress

These empire waist dresses are a solid colour with a light white crosshatch pattern and a small white bow at the neck. I believe they came with tights, but I’m not sure if they were solid white or lace. I also believe they came with Mary Jane shoes, but I need to see one of these outfits in the box to know for sure. If you can confirm or debunk it, please let me know.

Outfit K comes in two different colours. I can only assume they could no longer source the first one and changed to the other. I don’t know which was first and which was second.

Light purple version of outfit #665, the Mimic Swing Dress — Photo courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.

Mimicked Outfit: Outfit #1 – Swing Dress
Significant differences between these outfits include the pattern and the size of the bow. To see other outfits similar to this one, visit Outfit #1 .

#656 – Mimic Shoulder-Tie Dress

There are no significant differences between this dress and the original dress, except that the white fabric in the #656 dress is sometimes a thicker ribbed cord-like material rather than the thin white cotton used in the original. Of course, there are differences in pattern and colour, but that’s it! I do not know what shoes this outfit came with, but I would guess white Mary Jane shoes.

Mimicked Outfits: Outfit #3 – Shoulder-Tie Dress, Outfit #504 Apron Dress
To see other outfits similar to this one, visit Outfit #3.

# 658 – Velveteen Overalls

There are only two versions of this outfit. Although they look like Outfit #12, the Ruffled Overalls, it would be almost impossible to confuse them. These overalls are made of a lovely dark/light blue velveteen, and the bib is backed by the same fabric as the matching blouse. The blouses are made of flowered cotton fabric or white silky fabric. The most obvious difference is the embroidered winged heart on the bib. I have only one picture for reference, but this outfit appears to come with Mary Jane shoes.

Navy blue Velveteen Overalls outfit, #658H. — Outfit #658H

Steel blue Velveteen Overalls outfit, #658J. — Outfit #658H

The tags in these outfits are different than those in the rest of the series and almost every other recorded outfit. I’m unsure if this is significant, but it is interesting to note.

Side 1 of the unusual tags found in #658 outfit.

Side 2 of the unusual tags found in #658 outfit.

It is also interesting to note that the velveteen fabric used for these outfits is only used in one other type of CPK outfit, two of the Jesmar preemie outfits.

Mimicked Outfits: Outfit #12 – Ruffled Overalls. Significant differences are found in the fabrics and blouse patterns.

#659 – Mimic Yoke Dress

The fabrics used for this dress appear to be textured, but all are a solid colour. The yoke and sleeves have frilly lace, and there is a small velveteen bow at the neck. It came with matching bloomers and either Mary Jane or regular lace-up shoes. I am unsure which.

Light purple version of outfit #659, Mimic Square Yoke Dress. — Photo courtesy of Jodi’s Punki Patch.

Mimicked Outfit: Outfit #13 – Square Yoke Dress
Significant differences include the frillier lace around the yoke and the velveteen bow. To see other similar outfits, visit Outfit #13.

#660 – Shadow-Stripe Dress

Structurally, these dresses are almost identical to Outfit #15, the Bib Dress. However, these outfits don’t have a bib, they have a silky ribbon running across the front, a small white bow and flower patch in the middle, and capped sleeves. The fabric has a shadow stripe pattern, and the arms, lower hem, and collar are all edged with frilly lace.

Blue version of outfit #660, Shadow-Striped Dress. — Photo courtesy of Kat Perhouse.

I’ve seen this outfit, minus the ribbon, twice. I believe the ribbons have been removed as they don’t appear to be well attached to the outfit.

#661 – Heart/Butterfly Dress

These dresses are also structurally similar to Outfit #15, the Bib Dress, but have a heart with flowers patch or a butterfly with flowers patch on the chest. It has cotton lace running across the front and at the sleeves and leg hems. For some reason, they used one patch for some outfits and the other patch for others. I’m not sure why.

Red version of outfit #661, Heart Dress. — Courtesy of Vanessa Brisson.

Yellow version of outfit #661, Butterfly Dress. — Courtesy of Vanessa Brisson.

There are two versions of #661H, red and dusty rose. Although both H’s are considered HTF, the red version is considered the harder to find of the two. (FB Conversation, Kat Perhouse, Feb. 2020) I don’t know which was produced first and which colour came second. Whenever the change happened, it was before the Amsterdam tags began being used.

These dresses are often confused with a great imitation aftermarket dress made by Happy Kids. Can you spot the differences? The most obvious differences are the embroidered patches and the lack of CPK clothing tag inside.