Soft Circuit Bracelet

A soft circuit bracelet is a fun and easy way to combine sewing and circuits. You will need to know the basics of sewing and a very simple understanding of circuits to be able to make this project.

materials needed:

• any piece of felt
• silver conductive thread
• a needle
• coin cell battery
• threadable battery holder
• LEDs
• scissors
• measuring tape
• chalk
• velcro strap
• pliers
• black sharpie

Measure your wrist using the measuring the tape. Add an extra 6 cm to the measured size of your wrist. This will enable you to put the velcro strap on and be able to sufficiently hide the battery holder.

Cut out a rectangular piece of your chosen felt that is as long as the measurement you had measured in the last step and is wide enough to fit the battery holder on it. After you have cut out the felt you need to draw out the circuit onto the felt with the chalk. It is important to use chalk for this because you can wipe the chalk off as soon as you have finished sewing. If this is your first time doing this I would recommend starting with a simple one led and one battery holder, but if you have done this before you can go as complex as you would like to go.

To make sure we can sew the LEDs onto the felt, we need to use the pliers to roll up the legs of the LEDs so that we can have a place where the thread can go through. Before you start to roll the legs up of the LEDs it is important to find out which of the legs is negative and which is positive. To do this use a coin cell battery light up the LED so that you can distinguish which leg is which. After finding which leg is which colour in the negative leg with the black sharpie. After you are done with marking the negative leg you can now use the pliers to roll up the LED's legs like in the photo above.

After drawing the circuit you can begin with sewing. First, start sewing on the battery holder very tightly through the positive holes with the silver conductive thread multiple times to make sure the battery holder is sewed on very tightly before continuing sewing to your desired destination of your LED. Sew on the positive LED(s) leg very tightly and then tie a knot and cut the silver thread. after doing the positive side do the same with the negative side. Be sure to no intertwine the positive side with the negative side.

Stick the velcro strap on the edge of the bracelet and put the battery into the battery holder and watch the LED(s) light up. You have now created a stylish bracelet. You can go further and place another piece of felt on top if you want to hide the circuit or add more decorations. You should now feel confident enough to make harder and more stylish soft circuits projects.