Dapper Day at Disneyland

On February 23 it was Dapper Day at Disneyland.  This was a new event for us this year that we found out about last September.  We happened to be at Disneyland celebrating my niece's birthday and we saw tons of people dressed to the nines, many were in vintage styles.  I couldn't believe it.  Usually Disneyland is a place of shorts and T-shirts but on that day there were so many woman in beautiful dresses and the men were in suits.   We had no idea what was going on so we stopped someone to ask and we were told it was Dapper Day.  Me mom and I absolutely loved our day at Disneyland.  We sat there at lunch people watching as all the beautifully dressed people passed us by and we knew we wanted to attend the next event.

So here is the low down on Dapper Day.  It is not actually put on by Disney.  It is a normal park day and everyone is responsible for getting their own ticket.  It happens twice a  year, once in the spring and once in fall.  The day is not really a costume day.  It really is about looking your best while going out.  I love walking down Main street and seeing all the dresses and suits.  It is like taking a step back into the past when people did dress their best when attending Disneyland.

We were so excited about the next Dapper day we started thinking up ideas right away.  However my mom and I had some other projects to work on like Halloween costumes and homemade bags for Christmas gifts.  But In January we went into full swing for Dapper Day.  Here are the outfits we made and the day we had at Disneyland.

First up the boys.

I knew I wanted to make vest and bow ties for my boys.  They like dressing up and I knew I could get them to wear a vest with a fairly simple outfit.  The key with these little guys is comfort.  I knew we couldn't do anything super fancy or hot otherwise they would not keep them on throughout the day.  We picked out a pattern from McCall's for both the vest and bow tie, however my mom ended up putting Velcro in the back of the bow tie instead of an elastic band.

Before we made the vests I told them about the different fabrics we could choose from and I let them each pick what Disney characters they wanted. The twins both picked out a Frozen Fabric.  They were both so excited to be able to have something to wear that had Anna and Elsa on it.  Frozen is one of their favorite movies and they absolutely love Elsa the snow queen.  Unfortunately for them, there are no boys Anna and Elsa shirts.  At the Disney store they are all in the girls section and a bit frilly.  James originally wanted batman but when I told him batman wasn't from Disney so he settled for his second favorite Lightening McQueen and Matter.

I went with a simple polo shirt (I had a ton from when James started TK at a school that required uniforms) and khakis.  I thought they might fight me on the pants because usually they like to wear elastic waist sports pants but since they knew it was Dapper Day they were excited to look their best.  They even put on their fancy dress shoes and their adorable little hats.  I bought those hats for a picture almost two years ago.  Luckily they still fit.

My three handsome boys finally meeting Anna and Elsa

A close up of their vests and bow ties

Although Ray didn't attend it with us this time (he took the day off) we did have to make a few pieces for my dad.  My mom whipped up a pair of suspenders and a Mickey Mouse bow tie for him.  We bought his fedora on Amazon which he was surprisingly very excited about.  I know he had a great day with us because he kept trying to get good shots on his phone so he could post pictures to his Facebook page.

Papa and his Dapper Boys

Fun on the carousel. 

The boys were absolutely adorable I got tons of people asking where we bought the vests and bow ties. Everyone was so impressed when I sad my mother and I had made them.  We got so many compliments I was just amazed.  We even had several people want to take pictures with us.  There was one young woman who worked for Joann and wanted to take our pictures since she recognized all the fabrics.  She raved about our outfits and said she had to show all the women she worked with my cute kids.  It was a very fun day and what mama wouldn't swell with pride with these three handsome little guys at her side!

Just so adorable

Riding on the River boat one of Dapper Days suggested activities

Seriously I just had to smile all day long when I looked at these little guys.

 And Now for the girls!

This was truly the fun part.  I love my little boys but I like to play dress ups too and doing it with my daughter is even more fun than I had ever imagined.  So For Lilly and I, I wanted to do Ursula and Ariel.  I don't know why I like the villains so much but I really do.  I told Lilly about it and she said "OK mommy but don't be scary."

When I was planning our dresses I didn't want to make "Ariels dress" and I didn't want to make an Ursula costume.  (When I saw my friend in the morning who was going with us she looked a little relieved to see that I didn't have large tentacles attached to my dress.) I wanted retro style dresses that were inspired by the characters.  

 For Lilly we picked a Simplicity Disney Fairies Pattern.    Although it wasn't in a 50's style like my dress it was a fancy little pattern with pretty trim so we thought it would be just fine.  We made the dress out of Tutti Frutti brand material. She had purple on the top to represent Ariel's shells and a green bottom to represent her fins.  The dress had flowing accents on the shoulders and around the bottom which made it seem a bit sea like to me.  I absolutely loved the way it turned out.  

We made her some accessories as well. I bought a red (like Ariel's hair) sparkly headband at Joann (I love those dollar bin finds!!!).  My mom made a flower out of the same material that the top of her dress was in and I glued it onto the headband along with a little starfish.  We also made a little necklace by threading some red ribbon through a sea shell.  She loved her dress and she showed it off and spun around like such a little lady!

She was a little grumpy because Grandma put her down for a second but it is a good shot of the outfit

With my dress we really lucked out and found a retro pattern from Butterick.  It was a wrap style dress that had one piece that went over the head to form the shirt and underskirt.  Then the back piece wrapped around in front to fill in the rest of the skirt.  It said it was very easy but I think my mom and I were having so late night troubles figuring things out and we made several mistakes trying to put the pattern together.  Now that we have done it once I think it would be a fairly easy dress to make.  I went with Ursula's signature colors of purple and black.  I found this great black material that had a gray swirl pattern.  I thought it gave it a hint of the tentacle feel without having eight giant legs hanging from my waist.

Dapper Day Ariel and Ursula.

My mom and I also tried out making a hat.  This one took us some time to figure out as well.  Neither of us had ever made a hat before and the pattern was a little tricky to read.  I loved how it turned out but I think I need to readjust the clips.  The hat is supposed to be worn slightly to one side and forward on the head but it kept sliding down the side of my head.  I also found the perfect golden shell necklace on etsy to really make the outfit perfect.   Oh yeah and one of the most important things.  I had super comfy sketcher sandals.  If I didn't have those sandals I would totally have worn some sneakers because lets face it... it is still Disneyland and I love my feet too much to wear uncomfortable heels all day.

A quick shot of the hat after we made it.

As if making three vests, three box ties, a little girl's dress and an adult dress wasn't enough my mom made two more dresses.  She started with one for My Aunt.  My Aunt is also a fan of Frozen so she picked to take her inspiration from Elsa.  She used the same pattern we used for my dress.  Since it's a wrap dress she picked two fabrics as well.  She found a great teal color for underneath and a beautiful blue sparkly material that looked very "snow flakey" and perfect for and Elsa dress.  In fact, both my daughter and my niece have asked for similar Elsa dresses from their grandma.

Dapper Day Sisters.

My mom picked one of her favorite Disney characters of all time, Mary Poppins.  I tried to convince her that a blue and yellow stripped dress would be an awesome flounder to our Ariel and Ursula but she wasn't buying it.  She picked an off the shoulder tie dress that she also made out of a Tutti Fruiti fabric from Joanne fabrics.  We were trying to make her dress look like Marry Poppins in her Jolly Holiday dress.  She made a simple red bow out of thick ribbon to accent the white dress she made. She bought a fun red necklace and bracelet to go with the ribbon.  Of course it couldn't be a Jolly Holiday without a beautiful parasol to top off the outfit.

My mom and my aunt both found some cheap (price not quality) hats that they spruced up with some ribbons to match their dresses.

The ladies of Dapper Day.

We all had such a fantastic day I am looking forward to the next Dapper Day.  The kids most likely won't fit in their outfits.  They seriously grow like weeds those little buggers.   Maybe we will make some new dresses or maybe we will wear the ones we already made but I know we will be there in September.

And just because I can't help it.  I have to include my favorite picture of the day.  My parents are just the cutest couple I know and a true inspiration to what a marriage should be like.