Suggested reading: An explanation of the 1983 series of outfits that the swing dress belongs to. Jump to: 1983 Series – The 1st CPK Clothes
Original Name: School Days
Alternate Name(s): A-line Dress, Sailor Dress (Ref#4, Vol 3, Iss. 8, p. 3)
Description:
Cotton A-line dress with a sailor collar and long cotton ties. The collar and sleeves are edged with white lace. The dress was paired with either white or red tights (Ref#4, Vol 3, Iss. 8, p. 3) and generally came with white Mary Jane shoes. Very occasionally, they came with lace-ups.
This outfit was sold from 1983 to at least 1985. I believe it may have been found on kids later, but this was most likely the company using up old stock.
Version Information
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, 1983 Series – The 1st CPK Clothes
If you have an outfit that is not recorded here or does not match my information, (e.g. you have a 1D OK that is pink and white gingham, not green and white gingham) 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.
I have not recorded any primary factory CC versions of this outfit.
Variations
> The following are observable differences between outfits produced at various factories.
- elastic in the sleeves
- tie material
- tie colour/shade
- lace
- piping at the collar
- colour of the collar
> Mimic Outfit(s):
#655 – Mimic Swing Dress – The bow is smaller and different.
#504 – Sailboat Dress – This dress has a different collar, rick rack decoration, a sailboat patch, and matching bloomers. It came out in 1985.
> There were many variations made by foreign factories.
For information on identifying a Jesmar version, jump to Identifying Jesmar Clothing
Other Information
There are more PMI Swing Dresses than there should be. Jump to An Abundance of Patterns for details.
Wondering if you can help me identify my CPK details as I cut the tag off as a child. Its a red swing dress, white collar, white tie, white stockings. So she’d be Code 1K and OK factory – correct? I got her Xmas 1985 in Australia. Her burthdate is 1 Aug.
Just curious and thanks for any help.
Hi Tara! If the dress that came on your doll was OK, there’s a VERY high chance the doll was also an OK kid. What other information about her would you be looking for? She would have worn lace-up shoes and likely white or red tights with her dress. I’m afraid the names were randomly assigned and generated so there’s no way of determining what name she came with. Let me know if I can help in any other way.
I have a KT cabbie in a 504B KT dress that looks basically like a royal blue swing dress printed with tiny white sailboats and polka dots. It is trimmed with white eyelet, small ribbon tie, and red rickrack at neckline and red rickrack at hem. It has a Cabbage Patch kids embroidered logo/sailboat appliance on one side. Do you want a picture?
Hi Margaret, thank you so much for your message and offer of pictures. What you have there is what’s called a Sailboat dress and it’s from the 1985 series of outfits. I haven’t got a post on it yet. You make a good point though, they do look like swing dresses don’t they? I’m going to add them as a ‘mimic’ outfit to the swing dress post, thank you for the idea. That is the most common of the sailboat dresses but those dresses are very sought after, people really like the whole group of them! You’ve very lucky to have one!