Star Wars Shoptrooper Neopixel Birkin Bag

For all the princesses in the galaxy...

Here is the holy grail of handbags...ok, this one off is a knockoff of some sort but I can guarantee you this is the only one in stock in the known universe.

Lights up in Delicious Darth Raspberry, Light Side Cyan, Purple Passion Kickarse Jackson, and M Stewart Kickarse Avocado Smoothie.

May your midi-chlorian count and credit limit be abundant...

Fashionista trivia: Posh-posh-uberluxe Birkin bags are long sought after and can cost even more than a semester of ivy-league college.

For something more down to earth and closer to the Marvel universe, try the Batgirl Birkin Bag.

*waits for the shiny Captain Phasma silver metallic vinyl knockoffs...

It was long ago and far away, in Jersey that I found these bags at the discount store. I picked them up for the brat to play with and use since they seemed nice and were cheap. It wasn't until later that I discovered these "Jellies" were a take on the famous Kelly and Birkin bags.

The bags are made of a translucent flexible plastic and due to the age, they are getting tacky and deplasticizing.

Time to finally make something with it since it was tucked away on a shelf a while back.

I recently made a The Matrix Neopixel Digital Rain Lampshade so I am reusing the electronics setup for the LED lights I had from there.

The internal lighting for the bag uses an Adafruit Trinket microcontroller driving some Neopixel LED strand segments with the Adafruit Learning System Cyberfalls Wig code. You can follow the Adafruit tutorial for the build.

When the neopixel strips are mounted inside the bag and diffused a bit with sheet fiberill batting, it will create a soft glowy lightshow for the bag.

The Star Wars Episode VII stormtrooper helmet visage design will be appliqued to the bag. That can be fabricated from pieces of felt or fabric.

We want to make the design of the bag reminiscent of a First Order Stormtrooper.

I sketched out a mask pattern on a sheet of black felt.

Since the felt was thin, I doubled up a layer and then used a satin stitch on my sewing machine to go around the outline and delineate the goggles area.

Trim away excess material close to the sewn seam.

This finishes off the edges into what would look like a nice embroidered felt patch.

I made the helmet grille part by sewing black strips of felt on a white background piece. It will be easier to handle one big piece instead of the 7 thin grille marks for each side.

All the felt pieces were hot glued on to the bag.

CAUTION: Know how to use your sewing machine and hot glue gun safely.

Once your neopixel light assembly is tested, up and running, you can mount it inside the bag.

I put some fiberfill batting to diffuse the bright neopixel LEDs.

Of course, you can bling it out with an inset jewel of some sort placed in the aerator/mic valve port.

The code can be modified to make it any color scheme or blink any pattern you like.

You can even modify it to add a color sensor so that the color displayed can match the rest of your clothing or an object.

A simple tilt switch or vibration sensor can have the lights animate when the bag is moved. Bag alarm.

Add GPS/compass and wayfinder functions to direct you to the nearest sales, bargain bins or clearance racks.

Have it flash to alert a Blue Light special occurring.

Add sound output as warning to others you are diving into a Filene's Basement wedding dress fray.

Add a microphone module or piezo element to detect sound to make the lights sound reactive.

And with a more powerful arduino or microprocessor board, you can have it connect with bluetooth or wireless to provide even more interactive capabilities.

The world of wearables...is out there...