Cornsilk Series 3: Beautiful Dresses Pt. 2

Intro to the Cornsilk Kids Clothing Series
Cornsilk Clothes Series 1 – Beautiful Dresses Pt. 1 (160s)
Cornsilk Clothes Series 2 – Wacky and Layered Pt. 1 (718-730)
Cornsilk Clothes Series 4– Wacky and Layered Pt. 2 (760s)

Timing

Series 3 came out in 1987. Honestly, I’m not sure which came first, Series 3 or Series 4. Some reference sources indicate that Series 4 (760s) came out before Series 3. (Ref#2, p. 79; Ref#3, p. 150) However, there is also evidence for Series 3 coming out before Series 4.

• 4 then 3: Outfits in Series 4 are very similar to those in Series 2 (300s).
• 4 then 3: Series 4 kids seem to come with the earlier ‘flowered’ birth certificate more then Series 3. Most of Series 3 comes with the ‘non-flowered’ birth certificate.
• 3 then 4: Outfits in Series 4 are much harder to find than those in Series 3. Generally, this means the series was produced for a  short length of time. This would have occurred if they had started selling them later in 1987 and then quickly switched to a newer group of outfits in 1988/98.
• 3 then 4: The codes in Series 3 are numerically lower than those of Series 4. From this, I assume that they planned Series 4 after Series 3. However, this does not tell us what order they came out in. Also, by the time these outfits were produced, Coleco was not always numbering outfits in order anymore.
• Same time: The 3^rd Series was made by the KT factory and the 760s by the P factory. Did they come out at the same time, but were made by different factories?

Description

This series (3rd) consists of six very pretty dress styles. I believe they initially came in the same boxes and with the same birth certificates as the 2^nd series, but when those ran out, they changed. The newer boxes looked the same, but the ribbons were in plastic sleeves attached to the box liner, and the hand tag and birth certificate changed to have a modern look.

The dresses generally came with matching bloomers, lacy white tights, and white Mary Jane shoes. However, I have seen one example that came with socks, and a few of them came with black Mary Jane shoes. I don’t have enough information at this time to list which came with which. I need more information! I also need more information on their undergarments. I think they came with the white underpants, but I’m not sure. Do you know?

The Outfits

There are 6 outfits in this series and they were made entirely by the KT factory. I believe that there are six or seven versions of each outfit: 3 sateen (A, B, C), 3 – 4 velveteen (E, F,?). Using the Cotton Version Series as a reference, it appears that they did not create a D.

Photos courtesy of Jodi’s Punk Patch, Callie Cabbies, and Cassidi Carroll.

There are 6 to 7 colour options for each fabric (6 sateen, 7 velveteen). As there are only three to four versions of each dress, only three colours were used for each one. There doesn’t appear to be a pattern for which colours they chose for which outfits.

Confused yet? It gets better!

The Cotton Matching Series

For every dress in the ‘fancy’ series that came on Cornsilk Kids, there is a ‘less fancy’ cotton version that came on regular kids. (#724-729) They came out at the same time.
For more information, jump to: Ho·mo·phone: the same . . . but different *

Breaking the Rules

Some of these Cornsilk outfits were later found on ‘regular’ kids. I believe they did this when they were getting rid of extra stock in late 1987 or 1988.