This week we have moved on to making circuits using conductive thread sewn into fabric. Our assignment was to incorporate a circuit that, when completed, would light up LEDs. While I could have just taken a simple piece of fabric and sewn some LEDs into it, I decided that I wanted piece of fabric to be functional in some way rather than purely decorative. Since we’re nearing Halloween, I decided on a Halloween trick-or-treating bag. I wanted to put a jack-o-lantern face on the bag with eyes that would light up.
I ordered a set of pillowcases online, and I planned out how I would like the circuit to run through the fabric. I decided that the place where the circuit would be completed would be with clasps on the inside of the bag near the rim. By squeezing the pieces together, the holder of the bag could make it light up. For the jack-o-lantern face, I decided to use a pattern I found online to cut vinyl using a Roland vinyl cutter.
Since there would be stitching running across the face on the pillowcase, I decided to make the character more of a “Frankenstein” jack-o-lantern face with stitching running across the face. I added some purely decorative stitching and decorative patches to complete the effect.
Here was the final result when I applied the decorative effects.
Working with the conductive thread was significantly easier than using the conductive tape last week. I am rather inexperienced with sewing, but it was still less frustrating than dealing with conductive tape that could easily get stuck to itself or unintended surfaces and was prone to breaking. The thread, on the other hand, was much more reliable. I felt in control of what I was doing though there was still not much ability to undo mistakes easily.