Looking for a nice and easy way of introducing lighting effects to textiles designs? Our new Electro-Fashion Sewable Light Kits include 2m of conductive thread (which sews like normal thread but conducts electricity like wire), our own custom designed Sewable Coin Cell Holder, one coin cell battery, and two ultra slim, pre-mounted, easy sew E-Textile LEDs. Available with either white, blue, green or red flat LEDs.

A very similar pack of parts has been available for a while now, however these Sewable LED Kits include through hole LEDs, as shown below (top left).

Electro-Fashion, Sewable LED Kit

To introduce through hole LEDs to a textiles project, the legs of the LED have to be twisted (using round nosed pliers) into small loops. These loops are then able to be oversewn using conductive thread. You can find more information on this HERE. A circuit using through hole LEDs would be slightly harder to create than one with PCB LEDs as this process can be fiddly to do and it can be easy to forget which is the negative and positive leg once they are twisted. The Sewable PCB LEDs (included in our new kits), on the other hand, are less than 3mm tall and are also clearly marked with '+' and '-' to indicate which is the positive and which is the negative connection. The PCBs are double sided, making the conductive thread connection very reliable. The coin cell holder also has the benefit of large, easy-to-stitch connection points (no more difficult little holes!) and clearly marked terminals that show the battery polarity.

Electro-Fashion Sewable Light Kit contents:

• 1 x Sewable Coin Cell Holder.
• 2 x Electro-Fashion® Sewable PCB LEDs (either blue, green, red or white).
• 1 x 2m Conductive Thread.
• 1 x CR2032 3V Coin Cell.

E-Textile circuit using Electro-Fashion components. For illustration only, not actual components provided.

Conductive Hook & Loop (hook and loop fastener)

Hook & Loop strips (such as hook and loop fastener) are extremely versatile touch fasteners

This 10cm long Conductive Hook & Loop (hook and loop fastener) Strip is perfect for E-Textile projects where you need to make a complete circuit by simply forming a connection between the hook and loop pieces. You can use this strip to light LEDs, form a simple on/off switch, make a pair of "hook and loop fastener" shoes even sweeter than they already are, or pretty much anything you can come up with! Use it the same way you would use conductive fabric. Each strip is silver-treated to make it fully conductive and is 2.5cm wide and 10cm long. Additionally, the surface resistance for both the hook and the loop is 1Ω per centimetre.

E-Textile example projects

Masquerade LED mask

Sewable Rocket Key Ring Torch, click HERE for the full tutorial.

Light-up Collar for a Dog, click HERE for the full tutorial.

Dog with Magnet-activated LED Nose, click HERE for the full tutorial.

Light-up Ladybird Bag, click HERE for the full tutorial.

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