Pattern Review: Decades of Styles #3011 1930s Stardust Skirt

Hey Everyone!

Abby here, and today I want to share with you a very quick pattern review for Decades of Style’s #3011 1930s Stardust Skirt.*

Before I get into the review – here’s the finished skirt on the first day I wore it:

Outfit: BCBG Blouse (10+ years old), 1930s Stardust Skirt in a wool blend, Black and White Peggys (no longer available but you can get them in Navy & Brown!) & a small Tsubasa snoot <3

To start, I have to say that I absolutely adore this skirt, and I’m so pleased with the finished product. Even if there are a couple of very small things to keep in mind while making up the pattern, the Stardust skirt was a very fast make and is a very flattering shape. I love the gores at the front of the skirt add a bit of swish and glamour to the finished product. I felt very chic wearing it around the office on Monday, and am already planning on making another one.

It was such a fast pattern to put together that this was literally the only “in process” photo I thought to take!

Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty:

One thing I really love about Decades of Style’s patterns is how they always start with “This pattern conforms to a fictional standard size…“, reminding all of us that it’s not about a number, but about how the garment fits your measurements that matters. I also appreciate how this connects us to the pattern company on a human to human level, instead of customer/business. The women behind Decades of Style are real people, just like us, and they get the struggle. The pattern is printed on standard pattern tissue paper and is marked for a 24″ – 40″ (61cm – 101cm) waist with finished garment measurements printed on the pattern. According to the pattern, there is about 1 inch (2.54cm) of ease added, and so going off my hip and the ever-fluctuating waist measurements (seriously… it can change up to 3″ (7.6cm) in just the course of a day!) I decided to cut out the pattern for a 28″ (71.1cm) waist.

1930s Stardust Pattern by Decades of Style

Pattern illustration of the skirt (Here)

I’m sure for many of us, the dots, dashes, and combinations that exist on patterns can be overwhelming, and I appreciated that Decades of Style states on the pattern that it’s a good idea to trace over your size with a highlighter so that way you don’t accidentally miscut. Sometimes I’ll do that, especially if it’s a complicated pattern, and so having that gentle reminder ensured that I did go about and highlight my cut lines before I started hacking away. Because there is such a broad range of sizes printed on the pattern, some of the dash/dot patterns start to look the same and blend together when you’re cutting, so highlighting the correct size really helped prevent miscuts!

I love the “stardust” gores that add that perfect bit of flair to this skirt. You can also see how far the back piece wraps around the front.

The instructions for the pattern are short and to the point. It’s a very straight forward skirt to construct, especially if you’ve made any sort of skirt before. Stitch the darts, stitch the side seams, insert the zipper, add the waistband and hook & eye, and hem it. Hooray! Skirt completed! Seriously, I think the actual construction of this skirt took about 3-4 hours.

With the different panels, I found that all the notches for the side seams matched up nicely. Since we’re dealing with some bias, I made sure to stitch all my seams from the waist down to the hem, to make sure any odd stretching ended up down there instead of at my waist. The pattern gives instructions on how to insert a regular zipper, but I opted to insert a concealed zip – mostly because my brand new concealed zipper foot showed up the night before, and I was eager to test it out (Side Note: If  you’re on the fence about a concealed zipper foot for your machine – do it – it made  inserting this zip a 1000x easier).

While I understand that concealed zips are a modern closure, it did create a very smooth and professional finish for my skirt. Something to keep in mind with this pattern is that the zip is on the right side instead of the left. This is because of how the skirt is patterned, with the back of the skirt wrapping around to the front on the left. Don’t be tempted to insert your zip between the back and gore, as you’ll end up with a zipper right in front of your left hip bone. (I am really glad I committed to following the instructions on this one and didn’t decide to go rogue – even though I briefly considered it because a right-side zip felt odd.)

Right side of the skirt [not] showing the concealed zip

The one thing that I’m a bit curious about is that when I went to try on the skirt before adding the waistband was how much larger it was at my waist than what I was expecting. My skirt ended up growing by almost 2 inches from what the finished garment measurements said. I don’t know if this was because of my fabric, which is a bit of a loose weave, a result of parts of the seams being on the bias, the pattern actually being a bit larger, a mix of 2 or all three. Either way, I ended up taking in every dart and side seam a 1/4″ (64mm)  just at the top 1″ (2.54cm) to nip it in at my waist a bit more. This adjustment meant that I had to take a lot out of my waistband so it wouldn’t end up like a spaghetti noodle monster wrapped around my waist. Not a big deal, but definitely something to keep in mind when you make up your version.

On the left side, a decent size dart gives shaping at the hip.

The back is fitted by darts and hangs very elegantly (and also curses to you rogue white thread!)

 Once the waistband was attached, I hung my skirt up for 24 hours to allow the hem to hang and any odd wibbly/wobbly bits to show themselves (spoiler: they did). There is a 2″ (5cm) allotment for the hem, which is what I did, and it came out at a very nice length on my very short legs (I’m 5’4″ (1.63m) but with very short legs more in keeping with someone around 5’1″ or 5’2″).

And there you have it! Like I said, I adore this skirt, and if you’re someone who is looking for a project that is easy for beginners, perfectly vintage, and also delightfully modern (hooray for the midi-skirt trend!) the Decades of Style #3011 1930s Stardust Skirt Pattern is an excellent choice!

Decades of Style 1930s Stardust Skirt Pattern is also officially Pupper Approved™.

*This pattern was privately purchased and is not sponsored in any way. <3