LED Fashion

This is my second instructable using LED light strips in clothing, except this time I am making it on fashion items instead of a stickman. Yet again, this was inspired by my sister because she is OBSESSED with fashion, and I am obsessed with making stuff so I wanted to beat her at her own game. I made this for the fashion competition (please check it out!!!!!) and hopefully you guys will find it useful. Without spoiling too much, she is going to make some hair band type things that are 3 in 1 or 4 in 1 (like I would know)! Anyway (and as always) have fun reading this and maybe try out making it!!!

LED lights with battery pack

AA batteries

Scotch tape

Cardboard

Scissors

Glue

Safety pins

Cheap sunglasses

Pencil

Pair of compasses Eraser

Craft knife

The lights that I used for my fashion items are the exact same lights that I used in my previous instructable (LED Stickman costume in case you have not read it). But for those of you who did not read it, I just put “led stickman lights” into the search bar and found some decent lights that arrived the next day. I also ordered some blue lights that were brighter than the red lights so that the fashion items would be more eye catching.

To start with, you will need to get a tie and tie it in some sort of triangular knot (I used a half Windsor) and trace around it onto a cardboard box. Then, you will need to cut out the outline of the tie and start taping the lights on at the actual knot of the tie. Go around the knot (making sure to tape it on as you go), then go around the rest of the out line of the tie until you come back to the knot. This is the part where you really get to be creative! Finally, create a pattern in the middle of the tie to make it super funky. I personally made wavy zigzags up and down the tie to form an x shaped pattern all along. If you prefer to have no design, then you can just go around the outline of the tie again or cut the lights to the desired length.

This is probably one of the easier of the accessories and is very straightforward to make. This uses a nearly identical process to the tie. Firstly, draw an outline of a bow tie onto some cardboard and cut it out. After that, I chose one of my shorter strips of lights an outlined the bow tie (starting with the circle in the middle and going on from there). Then I created a yen yang style center and a diagonal line through both sides of the triangular parts. I wanted to conserve the rest of the LED’s so I wrapped them around the back where they were not visible.

For this step, you will need two glasses that you do not mind putting tape or glue (depending on which one you use) on the lenses. I started with two different colours of lights and chose some sunglasses shapes that I thought would be appropriate. For the blue glasses, I wanted them to be round (like a stereotypical professor or Harry Potter’s glasses. I started with the lights on the part of the glasses that holds onto your ear and wrapped it around the rest of the sunglasses around to the other earpiece of the glasses. I did a similar thing with the red, apart from the fact that I went around the top bar of the sunglasses twice because I had some extra wires. The nose on the red needed no tape because it was held in place by the tension of the tape around it.

For the last part of making the fashion items, you will need an eraser, a pencil, a pair of compasses and some cardboard. Firstly, draw a circle about an inch in diameter longer than the top of your head (enough that it shades part of your eyes and you can see the brim). Next, cut out the circle and use the epicentre of that circle to draw a smaller circle inside of that circle (I made it an inch or two away from the edge of the first circle). After you have done that, cut out the smaller circle using a craft knife and put it to one side. Cut out a piece of cardboard that is about an inch longer than the circumference of the smaller circle and about 3 inches high (the height and size of the brim are really just a personal preference). After you have finished with that, tape the piece of cardboard you just cut out around the outside of the smaller circle (taping it as you go), and finish it off by applying some glue to the two on the inside of the cylinder. Tape the outside of the cylinder you just made to the hole in the bigger circle, and then apply some glue. Before adding the lights, let the glue dry for a little while so the hat will not come apart. After it has dried, start adding the lights to the brim of the hat (the bottom circle), and then wrap it around again if you have any left over wire. Do the same with the top circle, and add some decorations around the hat with the lights if you want (you will have quite a lot of spare light)!!!

Now that you have finished making your fashion items, you can try them on and show them off to your family and friends. As with the my led stickman costume, these items have got lots of comments on how cool the light up items look. Please post a make if you have made it, and add #red in the comments if you like the red items the most, and #blue if you prefer the blue items. Thank you for reading and I hope you have found this helpful!