(gentle) opinions needed

the jason wu for target collab came out about a month or so ago, and i once again dragged myself out of bed and woke the baby early for crying out loud to check it out.  i had my eye on the pink/yellow striped dress, blue floral dress & the blue poplin dress (google them b\c i'm too lazy to link)- neither of which i could find in the store when i arrived about 15-20 min after it opened.  when the missoni collection was at target last year i went to the tiny target by dave's office and was able to snag the one thing i wanted before anyone in the illinois suburbs found out what a missoni was.  jason wu was a little different, and i live near a different target- so the collection was picked through in just that short amount of time.  they didn't even have either of the dresses i wanted, so i grabbed a few things to try on that i thought might work.  in the end i went home with a black pleated skirt, a blush-colored tie top, a pale blue cardigan and a red striped dress.  

initial thoughts-  skirt- could barely squeeze into a size 8 (?!), but wanted a basic black skirt.  tie top- cute, but not bowled over.  cardigan- size small seemed to swallow me, but loved the color and snaps.  dress- my favorite, but shapeless. 

i wasn't 100% crazy about them, but i felt i wanted something from the collection.  i ended up letting them sit in the tgt bag on my floor for almost a month.  i got everything out about a week ago and tried it on again.  i ended up swapping the blush top for a modcloth dress, i put the dress in the laundry to be washed and was still undecided on the other items (now leaning toward returns). 

so like i said, i washed the dress.  to the instructions- machine wash cold, tumble dry low.  i even did delicate cycle with the wash.  i should've listened to my gut and not dried the dress, but our low dry does really well with things... big mistake. 

my dress is now pretty short, but since i'm short it's too long to be a tunic...  this is where i need you dear reader...  is this a keeper, or should i try to sell/swap it?

dress: jason wu for target

belt: target

sandals: sperry topsider

see- it's short.  i feel like it has to have the belt though or else it has no definition to it.  now without belt:

just kind of hangs like i'm wearing a sack.

b-t dubs.  i have my hair in a milkmaid braid- totes cute

 man, my back part is awful... and my hair is not the greasy hot mess that it looks- i promise.  just dark & shiny.

your thoughts on the dress though... belted, unbelted or see ya later?

happy birthday bb