To be visible at night and keep my pants from getting caught in my spokes, I made this glowing, reflective band. The inside is 3 LEDs wired in parallel, with their plastic cases sanded to help diffuse the light. The outside has a strip of reflective iron-on tape from JoAnn and some velcro. The battery slides into a pocket to turn the band on, and can be kept in a seperate pocket during the day. TaDa!

I knit little flowers, crocheted centers for them, put LEDs inside, and sewed them onto a bag made for that purpose (with the circuit in the lining and the battery accessible from the inside). More photos!

This cute little chip is a 555 timer sewn in astable mode into a circuit that makes 2 LEDs blink. The resistors that affect the ratio of on/off and the speed of the switch are both photoresistors, so the project is light-sensitive. Watch a video of it working.

This is the first time my lilypad has been sewn to something. Here a light sensor is used to control the tone of a cheap speaker, for an annoying yet cool soft circuit. See a video of it working (turn down your sound a bit first!)

My second project was more thought out. I sewed the LEDs to a piece of old sheet in parallel, meaning I could use all 5 with a little 3 volt battery (if they were in series, the battery would not have been able to supply enough voltage). I then created a soft button and a battery holder from another piece of fabric, and sewed this to the first piece of fabric with a sewing machine, creating a cute little circuit which lights up when pushed.

I then put this circuit under the pattern from my dorm tshirt (west lagunita, themed spamalag). Ta da! A soft, flexible circuit.

I've tried to explain some of the basics of sewing with electronics. I'll add more to this page as I learn / make more examples.

I'm taking a really cool class at Stanford called Art and Electronics, taught by Gail Wight. Check out my projects!

Trevor made the circuit and arduino program to create a soft stretch sensor for the lilypad. The thread changes resistance as it is stretched. By measuring the resistance change, we were able to change the color of a tri-color LED.

This bike glove takes one coin-cell 3V battery to light 3 LEDs when the two fingers contact each other. It will be used for biking in the dark: it will both keep my fingers warm in the 3-fingered bike-glove style and it will serve as a very visible signal if I need to turn or slow down. It was hand-sewn with 4ply conductive thread and surface mount LEDs.

My first decent soft electronics project was this square of LED stars. I wasn't really sure what to make, so I'm not too happy with the appearance, but the idea is cool. I sewed most of it on a sewing machine, and hand-stitched the LEDs onto a middle layer of cloth. It snaps into a 9V charger which plugs into the wall just like a cellphone charger would, which is really nifty.