Baby accessories seldom come cuter than this.
A Georgia mom-to-be has a viral hit on her hands thanks to her crocheting skills and a fondness for Cabbage Patch Kids – the dimpled dolls that sparked a craze in the 1980s.
“I was a huge child of the ‘80s and I had lots of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and I just loved them,” Amanda Lillie, 33, told TODAY Moms.
She also loves to crochet and scours Pinterest for new patterns, so she was excited when she saw another user showing off “Cabbage Patch hats” – accessories that mimicked the woolen hairstyles of the toys. But Lillie didn’t think they looked like the real thing, so she pulled out her old dolls and decided to crochet a wig of her own.
As a fluke, she put it on sale on her Etsy shop last fall and the business just took off, she said. It takes Lillie two to three hours to crochet one of her Cabbage Patch Kids wigs. The most popular model has pig tails and comes in a light-brunette color, she said.
Lillie, who lives in Dawsonville, Ga., and is expecting her first child in September, also sells patterns for the accessory and estimates it would take a crocheting novice about a day to complete.
Most of her customers buy the wigs for babies who are about 8 months old – the age when a child is actually the size of a Cabbage Patch Kid and looks most like the doll – though the wigs come in all sizes and can be made for adults.
Sales were most brisk around Halloween, but buzz about her creation seems to be snowballing online.
“I’ve just seen a tremendous response,” Lillie said. “Apparently it’s going viral on some of the social media websites.”
She’s been moved by some of the ways her customers have used the wigs. One woman who works in a daycare center is planning to wear one on the job to amuse the kids. Another customer makes them for children who have cancer and have lost their hair because of chemotherapy.
“I thought that was just amazing,” Lillie said. “That was just the sweetest, endearing thing I’ve ever heard.”
Meanwhile, she’s preparing for her baby girl’s arrival in the fall and her first Halloween. She’ll be wearing a Cabbage Patch Kids wig, of course.