Hilary's Cabbage Patch Clothes Closet
Learning about 1980's Cabbage Patch Kid clothing.
How to use a flat iron to help with ribbons, tags and clothes.
I can’t remember where I learned this little tidbit, but it’s wonderful.
Use a travel flat iron to straighten and neaten the following:
Note: I purchased mine at a second hand store for under $5.
Due to some changes on the site, I have updated the instructions on how to search the site. There are now 4 options available to you.
Please remember, if you can’t find it, I may not have written a post on it yet. The blog is just over a year old, so there’s a lot we haven’t covered yet!
Happy hunting!
Success! I’m very excited. I do not know exactly how things will change, but I’ve already discovered back end benefits.
The only complication I can see so far is a formatting discrepancy. Please ignore the weird characters that are now replacing some of the dashes and other special characters. I will get around to fixing them over time.
Thank you for your patience during this process.
Knit booties came with a small number of very specific outfits, but which ones? Find out!
Jump to: CPK Shoe Summary
Knit booties were manufactured by Coleco from 1983 to 1987. However, the characteristics varied by factory.
I do not have any examples of Hong Kong period booties, so I do not know if there are any significant differences.
Yellow and white booties came with one regular-sized outfit, and white booties came with several preemie outfits.
So far I know that booties were manufactured by the following factories:
It seems that each factory used a different knitting pattern. You can see visual differences between them. I have one pattern that I cannot associate with a factory, but I think it might be the CC factory. I am still missing examples of many factories. Do you have them?
The booties also appear to come in two different sizes, but I do not know why. It would make sense that the larger ones were for the #9 Bubble Romper outfit and regular-sized kids, while the smaller ones were for the preemie outfits. However, I have seen the smaller-sized booties in yellow, which never came with the preemie outfits.
Finally, there is a Play Along 25th Anniversary version of the Bubble Romper outfit. These booties look like OK factory booties, but the yarn is thinner and finer.
I have never seen booties separately packaged like other CPK shoes.
Foreign factories did produce booties. The Triang-Pedigree are a lot like P factory booties.
A new instructional video on how to replaces the body stitches in the legs is now available.
A new instructional video on how to replace the knees, ankles and toes in a mass market Cabbage Patch Kid doll is available on my YouTube channel.
Which outfits came with regular ‘high top’ shoes, shoes without factories, and more. Part 2
Other relevant posts: Regular Lace-Up Shoes Pt 1, CPK Shoes: An Overview and Links, Lacing CPK Shoes
Regular ‘lace-up’ shoes appear to come in a variety of sizes as well. Some are longer and narrower, while others are shorter and wider. Some are just smaller, period.
Eventually, they changed or made new shoe moulds. They now said CHINA instead of HONG KONG (only a few years late), but they no longer used factory indicators. I believe these shoes came next because I have coloured shoes which straddle this situation, some with factory indicators, some with CHINA.
I believe the last shoes produced had nothing in the heel except possibly a mould number. They are essentially blank. Either this was the final change before Hasbro took over, or these shoes may have all been produced by Hasbro during the transitional period; it is hard to know.
UPDATE
I’ve been provided evidence of these ‘number only shoes’ on a 1985 MIB SS preemie. This would seem to indicate that at least this factory started using them earlier than I thought. (Messanger, Jana Smith, May 2022) If you have more evidence, I would like to see it.
Coloured versions of lace-ups started appearing in 1988 on Toddlers and Transitional kids. It could be that they were all produced by Hasbro, not Coleco, as they continued to be sold on Hasbro Preschoolers after 1989. For foreign Tsukuda factory also produced coloured lace-ups
I have recorded Coleco-coloured lace-up shoes in the following colours:
This was taped as part of the 2020 online Spooktacular Cabbie Event.
I discuss my project, my final goal, how you can help, and how it helps you. I then answer questions on a variety of topics including cornsilks, twins, factory codes, and more.
Time and Topic Index:
3:00 – Explanation of clothing tags and clothing codes
5:30 – Variations in outfits
6:40 – Why this information is useful to you
7:50 – Ultimate goal of the project
9:15 – How you can help
10:40 – HTF kids and valuation – Why I don’t record this
11:50 – Disclaimer
21:40 – Tour of ‘Cabbie Closet’ and how I store clothing
19:05 – Accessories with codes
21:30 – Twins (more at 22:50)
24:40 – Specialty Kids
25:00 – Cornsilk outfits (more in Part 2)
28:20 – Glasses
28:25 – USA Outfits
Time and Topic index
0:00 – Button duck dresses
1:50 – HTF and Rare discussion continued
4:00 – Cornsilk and Homophone outfits continued
7:50 – How the numbers work, other matrices, and missing numbers
14:10 – Matching factory codes – dolls and clothes
18:00 – Codes on stickers (P, PMI, IC)
20:30 – Value and HTF discussion continued
24:20 – Defuzzing clothes (continues at 27:15)
25:00 – HTF BBB outfits from Thailand (Visit for updated information)
28:25 – How to search the blog (there’s a page too)
“Casual one piece play outfits for your Cabbage Patch Kid”
These adorable rompers were manufactured by the WW factory and came out in either 1984 and/or 1985. I believe they only came out packaged, never on boxed kids. They did not come with any other items like shoes or socks.
There are six different rompers. Although they each have an official name, most people refer to them by the occupation they portray.
Official Name Unofficial Name
Dr. Petvet Vet
Goody Gardener Gardener
Fire Fighter Fireperson
Handy Carpenter Handyperson
Splashy Painter Painter
Sassy Sherrif Cowboy
A simple, yet pretty gown for your perfect preemie.
There are 2 pieces to this outfit.
Footwear: Knit booties
This outfit was most likely sold only from 1984 – 1985. Some packaged versions may have sold later than that.
My goal is to find every version of every outfit that was produced. Below is a record of each version of this outfit that I have, up to the date indicated. To understand clothing codes, factories and variations, please refer to the suggested readings below.
Suggested readings: 1st Blog – Why do this project?, What are Clothing Tag Codes
If you have an outfit that is not recorded here or does not match my information, (e.g. you have a 5G SS that is green and not pink) I would appreciate hearing from you. Information is best sent in the form of pictures. For details on the pictures required, jump to Taking Clothing Tag Pics.
> There are no observable differences between outfits produced at various factories, yet.
Challenge Day #19 – Huh? What’s happening? Naked kids?
We can only theorize that there was an outfit planned for this number but, that for some reason, it was never produced.
Some speculate that it is the one outfit on the 1983 box that was never produced. The interesting thing about this picture is that they never produced a looped AA girl (or boy) like that in 1983 either. (FB Conversation, Feb. 21, 2022)
