Cabbage Patch Kids
Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of soft sculptured dolls created by Xavier Roberts (1955-) and registered in the United States copyright office in 1978.
As a 21 year old art student, Xavier utilized the quilting skills he learned from his mother and the historic technique of "needle molding" to develop his own line of fabric sculptures. He called these hand-stitched, one-of-a-kind, soft fabric sculptures "The Little People". His Little People were not offered for sale, but were "adopted" each with their own individual name and birth certificate. Other soft sculpture dolls dating back to the 1800s were created using similar needle molding techniques, and a Kentucky artist named Martha Nelson Thomas alleged that Roberts had stolen his specific design from dolls she had created. The dolls Thomas made also utilized the "birth certificate" that Cabbage Patch dolls used. Roberts admitted having seen Thomas's work, but denied having stolen the design. Roberts and Thomas eventually settled the suit for an undisclosed amount.