Friday, October 24, 2014

Copying a rtw bra

This summer I bought my first rtw bra in many years, I blogged about a copy of that one here. As a “treat” to myself I bought another rtw bra from another brand. It has quite a different shape in the cups and also the wires are longer. I’ve tested it during a long walk and it was very, very comfortable. Certainly worth to make a pattern from it. I thought it might be worthwhile to share how I did this without taking the bra apart.
I used a flat foam board in which pins can be placed. On top of the foam I placed a sheet of paper.
On that I pinned the bra part I wanted to copy, making sure the elastic was stretched, but the lycra fabric was not stretched more than the original part. That is something to really be careful about.
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Surprise for me in this bra was the narrow hook and eye closing and the almost vertical line center back. I would never have tried a one hook/eye closure by myself, but it does work (for me).
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Then I marked the edges of the part by placing pinmarks along the part (remember the little child in you that did this as a 4-5 year old?)
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After taking away the bra connect the dots and that part is copied.
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A little trick was necessary (at least in my case) to copy the under cup. This would not lay flat in one piece. I basted a more or less straight line and copied it in two parts. When traced the straight line was not as straight as I thought, but the pieces nicely fit together after copying.

(Added: LaMona suggested in the comments taking out the wire. The cup parts can be laid flat without wire. That is a very good suggestion and if you can take it out, I advise you to do so)

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Unfortunately not all pictures of this were clear enough to post, but I hope the method might be helpful.
I’m working on a lot of things at the same time, because of the drafting that I’m doing in a class as well. This bra will probably the first in line to finish, followed by the coat.

7 comments:

  1. I've been thinking about doing this. Please post your progress.

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  2. That's a great method for copying something that's not flat like a bra cup.

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  3. very interested to see this one made up

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  4. thanks for the inspiration, its on my whishlist as well!

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  5. I am very interested in following along. I have a RTW bra that fits wonderfully and would like to copy it. I bought two more of the exact same bra and in the same size, however the fit is much tighter. I would love to sew my own bras.

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  6. When I copy a RTW bra, I take out one of the wires. The cup pieces then lie flat on the paper.

    Place back the wire and close the opening.

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  7. O thank you for example how to do pattern (forgive me my English..)
    I love your sewing, really, and I want to sew bra too.

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