Pattern Review: OLIVE Undies by Sarah Kirsten

Image from sarkirsten.com

February 2022

Written by Julie (Bolt Staff)

I loved sewing up Sarah Kirsten’s Olive Undies! This pattern gave me the perfect fit right off the bat, no adjustments required––a far cry from my first undies-sewing experience years ago with the Seamwork Geneva pattern, for which I could never get a good fit, no matter what I tried. (From what I’ve heard from customers, I think Seamwork has improved their fit in more recent patterns like the Fable Underwear).

But the Olives––oh, my. Full bum coverage, high leg openings, and both mid- and high-rise options, as well as a lovely thong, and all fit me better than my self-drafted undies do. Kirsten offers two elastic options––enclosed braided elastic and picot elastic––and gives clearly illustrated instructions for how to sew up the gusset using the burrito method. I found her suggested elastic lengths to be spot on for my shape and size. (Don’t forget to give your elastic some good hard tugs before cutting to the specified length! Elastic is treated with sizing, just like anything else you buy at a fabric store, so you should always prime it before cutting to make sure it doesn’t stretch out as you attach it to your undies.)

My one critique of this pattern is that the leg openings do not include notch points at four even intervals around the hole, so getting the elastic evenly stretched across the leg openings was very challenging. For my first pair, I eyeballed the four midway points, pinned in place, and stretched/sewed, but I wasn’t very satisfied with the evenness I achieved. For my second pair, then, I took a measuring tape around the opening and marked the main pin points, then sewed them up for a more professional finish. Worth the extra couple of minutes!

One last tip for when (not if! when!) you sew these up––when attaching the elastic, be sure to let the fabric peak out just a teensy bit under the edge of the elastic. That way, once you fold it over to the wrong side to let either the picot edge or the fabric self show, you won’t have any bits of elastic peeking out of the fold. For an extra clean-looking finish, attach the elastic using a serger––that way, even if a bit peeks out, the serger thread will conceal it. Then your undies-insides will be as beautiful as your undies-outsides!