10 Dresses, 1 Pair of Floral Mickey Ears- Day 4

Dress #4- 50's style Dress with poor pockets

Writing this blog may be killing me. Just kidding! In all seriousness, I am starting to feel the late nights of writing till 3:00 am after chasing a 6 year old around all day. So here is the nitty-gritty of today's featured dress in my briefest post so far. Hope you enjoy the quick read!

Dress #4: Wellwits Women's Lapel V Neck Plaid Pocket 1940s 1950s Vintage Swing Dress from Amazon

This dress has a 50's feel to it, and is another prime example of what I call a tablecloth dress. The color again, was an easy match to the Floral Mickey Ears. The material, 95% cotton and 5% polyester, is quite cheap and thin, but I didn't mind the thin, light fabric on this humid day. It was so muggy, I felt like I was swimming around in a crock pot instead of strolling through the Magic Kingdom.

I'm happy to report, this dress has pockets! These are an example of very cute and stylish pockets, with pretty poor functionality. I was glad to have them none the less. I still carried my back-pack purse, but I was able to keep my phone and sunglasses in my pockets for easy access. I did not leave anything in my pockets while going on rides. Too risky. The pockets were shallow, and I think something would have easily fallen out. All in all, I think this dress is gorgeous, and poor pockets are better than no pockets. I would give this dress a C+ as far as functionality goes. The pockets are decent, as long as your not going on park rides all day!

Photo taken by a Disney Cast Member

I'd also like to give a shout-out to the Disney employees who are INCREDIBLE. They were so accommodating with making sure I got great pictures today. One let me hold a huge flock of balloons while another took a photo of me. Another let me niece into the meet and greet area for the Aladdin and Princess Jasmine characters so I could take photos of my niece. Two other employees held bubble wands around my niece so I could get a shot with bubbles in it (as seen below). For a while I was solo with my niece, and it was hard to take pictures. Any cast member (staff are called cast members in Disney) I asked to take a photo did so with a smile, and patiently took as many photos as I wanted. They were all phenomenal and I appreciate all of their help!

Tomorrow I will be getting out of the blue/teal color scheme! Until then, may you find pockets to rival your purses!

The bubble shot!

10 Dresses, 1 Pair of Floral Mickey Ears- Day 3

Is the Disney Dress Shop really worth the $$$?

Is the Disney Dress Shop worth the cost? I don’t know about you, but I don’t often spend more than $25.00 on a dress. At $128.00 per garment, the Disney Dress Shop is far out of my normal price range for any single dress. Most of my clothes come from Amazon and thrift stores. I’ve ogled more expensive brands from time to time, but I like to constantly switch up my wardrobe and often only wear a dress a few times before donating it, or passing it onto a friend. That said, the Disney Dress Shop is well worth the price. The dress I chose was absolutely beautiful, very well made, extremely comfortable, AND it had A++ pockets!

Dress #3: Minnie and Mickey Polka Dot Floral Print Dress from the Disney Dress Shop

You can see the cap of my water bottle peeking out of my pocket!

The pockets on this dress are very deep and secure. All day, I kept my giant cell phone (a Google Pixel XL- roughly 6"x 3”), 2 chap-sticks, a money clip, and water bottle stored away in my dress pockets. Yes, an entire water bottle fit, the cap stuck out a little but the bottle stayed deep down in the pocket. When I first spotted the dress, I immediately checked for pockets. Once my hand went into the pocket, I was in love. The girl next to me grinned, and said, “It has pockets!” Her mother replied, “That’s hard to find.” I had found my people.

An up close view of the print.

On top of having great pockets, I love the vintage look of the dress (and all the dresses), and the subtle Mickey/Minnie polka dot print was super adorable. It’s made out of 97% cotton and 3% spandex so I was very thankful for the breathable fabric when we were sweating our brains out in the 90 minute line for the slinky roller coaster.

Sadly, we never made it onto the roller coaster as it started thundering and lightening and they stopped the ride. There’s always a Fast Pass for another day, and several people complimented the dress as we made our way out of that maze of a queue. This is gross, but because of the heat, I was sweating buckets. While we were waiting in line, I added, “Bring Disney dresses to dry cleaner” to my To-Do list. My other Disney Dress Shop dress (featured in my first post) is dry clean only so naturally I thought this one was too. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this dress can be hand washed, and cool-ironed if needed.

Speaking of my other Disney Dress Shop dress, I actually have two. The last time I went I had a terrible experience because the sizing was so small. I could not find a dress that would zip up all the way, and ended up crying in the fitting room. At the time, I purchased a “goal” dress to help inspire me to get into shape, but I still have not been able to fit into it. The dress was an XL, and if I’m being honest, their largest size, 1X, didn’t fit- hence bursting into tears in the fitting room. I’m not going to kill myself trying to lose weight because I was probably a little mental purchasing a dress that was over 2 sizes too small.

I still strive to be healthy,

but I believe you should make the dress fit you, not make your body fit the dress.

Someday I’ll either sell it, or wear it but that’s not really why I'm mentioning this dress. I’m roughly the same size now, and today I purchased a large. I think that the Dress Shop may have clued into their unrealistic sizing, and fixed the issue.

My first ever Disney Dress Shop Dress! This is not the too small dress mentioned above. See it featured in my first post! https://mustlovepockets.wixsite.com/mysite/post/why-you-must-love-pockets

Going back to this post’s featured dress, the last thing I’d like to say is that the zipper is phenomenal. Very high quality, and easy to zip. When most of your dresses come from Amazon, a lot of your zippers suck BIG TIME. By now I am pro at zipping dresses, but I have some dresses that can’t be zippered by another person from the back. The third-rate zippers are so tricky, I literally have to keep my arms out of the sleeves, turn the dress around with the zipper in the front, zip it closed most of the way with my magic zipping powers, twist the dress back around, and wiggle and contort my arms into the sleeves. I’ve nearly missed the train into NYC because the cheap zipper on my dress popped as I left my apartment. Please believe me when I tell you this is a GREAT zipper.

Check out the pockets on this puppy!

I’ll end this post with one final thing about the Disney Dress Shop as a whole. It is costly, but if you can afford to buy a dress there I recommend putting it on your bucket list next time you visit Walt Disney World. If I’m being honest, it probably is slightly over-priced. Let’s face it, a lot of the merch is, but the dresses are quality. I’ve had the one in my first post for about 7 or 8 years, and it is in great condition. Also, it’s just a fun experience. The Dress Shop itself is adorable, and there are a lot of great accessories, including purses, Mickey Ears, and jewelry. I’m just waiting for them to stock shoes. If you feel that spending $100+ on a dress is unrealistic, you could just go try some on for fun, and take some photos in their full-length vintage-looking mirrors.

My niece posing for fun in front of one of the Disney Dress Shop mirrors.

10 Dresses, 1 Pair of Floral Mickey Ears- Day 2

Dress #2, A timeless eye catcher!

Dress #2" Simple Flavor Women's Vintage Dress Sleeveless O-Neck Party Cocktail Dress in green from Amazon

My mom selected dress number two for today’s adventures. Out of the ten dresses I brought with me, this was the best choice for today. We didn’t go to any of the Disney parks. Instead we hung out by the pool, and then went to Disney Springs for dinner, and to my slight dismay, to see the movie Dora the Explorer (it actually wasn’t terrible). If you’re not familiar with Disney Springs, it was formerly known as Downtown Disney. It’s basically a huge outdoor mall with tons of shopping, dining, and drinking. It boasts some neat sights like the Lego store- the home to a giant Lego sea serpent swimming in the water, among other statues and photo op street art. There’s also a fun little outdoor concert area with boppy tunes that drew my niece like a moth to a flame. Most importantly, this is where one can find the Disney Dress Shop.

HAD to make the pilgrimage to the Dress Shop on Cherry Tree Lane!

I won’t go too much into detail about our time in the dress shop, I’ll save that for the next post when I feature the dress I got today. Spoiler- IT HAS POCKETS! I will say, I love going there, even if it’s just to look around. The dresses are gorgeous, and they’ve added matching children’s dresses to their racks. So if you like to dress the same as your mini-me, this is a great place to go, albeit on the expensive end of clothing.

Just blending in...

I thought my niece was going to beg to get matching dresses because she’s taken to calling us “twinsies” on this trip, but luckily she got distracted by a pizza purse. She has even started insisting that she take photos whenever I do, and then imitates my poses. This is simultaneously cute, and scary (am I creating a monster?). She decided to leave her floral Mickey Ears behind tonight because I put her hair into a high side bun, and glittered the heck out of it (check out the photos below).

Sprinkling a little "Tinker Belle dust" onto her hair was an easy, fun and inexpensive way to make her feel special! Holographic Body Glitter Gel: $12.58 from Amazon

When anyone complimented my floral Mickey Ears, she would immediately jump to say, “I have a pair with flowers too!” Luckily, she didn’t catch every compliment on my outfit and ears, or it would’ve gotten old fast. I was pleasantly surprised to have at least 7 or 8 strangers compliment my ensemble. Thanks mom for picking this dress!

This baby is an absolute eye catcher. The flow skirt, bright seafoam green color, and clean polka dots make for a really classic look. Thanks again mom! I probably would have chosen to wear this to Hollywood Studios tomorrow without her help, but I’m glad I got to wear this timeless piece out for a night on the town for two reasons. First, I got a ton of compliments (who doesn’t like compliments?) and second, It was HOT. While this dress truly is striking, the fabric is 100% polyester, and it feels almost like a cheap silk. AKA it is not good material for the heat, and I was sweating- PROFUSELY. Needless to say, I’m glad I wore it in the late afternoon and evening once it had cooled down a little, or I might have thrown this dress straight into the donation bin. Especially because it has no pockets! If I were scoring this dress for functionality, I would give it a hard and fast zero. I may still donate it, but maybe not right a way. Other than sweating a little more, it is a very comfortable wear. Plus, I did truly feel beautiful in it.

I may be looking for function in fashion, but I think it’s rare to find an article of clothing that makes you feel radiant. Don’t you?

I’m looking forward to telling you about the Dress Shop tomorrow, and wearing a dress with pockets. Hopefully, I will be without a purse all day! Until then, may you find pockets to rival your purses!