3. SEW YOUR LED PATTERN
3a. With a marking pen, mark the
lines for your LED pattern on the
garment. Also, mark where you want
your microcontroller (IC socket) and
power supply to be. You want a grid of
conductive traces where the vertical
traces do not touch the horizontal
ones. A simple way to do this is to put
one trace on one side of the fabric and
the other trace on the flip side of the
fabric, utilizing the fabric as a natural
insulator. The lines for the vertical
traces should be on one side of your
garment, and the lines for the horizontal traces should be on the other.
I marked both sets of lines on both
sides of my tank top to make sure
my lines were well placed. Use a T
square to get good right angles and
straight lines.
3b. Make a bobbin of silver-coated
thread for your sewing machine, and
put it in the machine. Use a spool of
ordinary thread for the top thread.
Using silver-coated thread in the bobbin of a sewing machine will allow you
to sew conductive horizontal traces on
one side of your garment and conductive vertical traces on the other side.
As you sew, the bobbin thread will
remain on the underside of the fabric
you are sewing.
Q: So, if I want conducting vertical traces on the back, where should I draw my lines?
A: You should draw them on the opposite side, the front. The lines you draw will be facing up
as you sew so that you can follow them. The conductive trace, from the bobbin thread, will be on the
opposite side of the fabric.
