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.

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).

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?)


After taking away the bra connect the dots and that part is copied.
 
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)


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.