Finished today: a fabric lightbright! There’s got to be a catchier name to it, so kudos to anyone who can think of one. This project was made using one layer of embroidered conductive thread in lines, a layer of regular fabric, and a layer of copper polyester from lessemf.com. After the embroidery was complete (no small task) copper polyester strips were sewn down the lines to ensure even power distribution, and a lilypad switch was soldered to a battery pack. Sharpen the ends of a few LEDs, stick ’em through the fabric, and voila! A fabric light bright! The next life of this will be on a messenger bag, so that the LED pictures can be shown off at this year’s 26c3 event.
A PDF on how to build this yourself, including all materials used, process, obstacles overcome, etc. will be posted soon. Stay tuned!