Do you have dreams of blinging out your gear but have no idea where to start? This episode of the Maker Show will explore the wide world of wearables - from MicroControllers made for wearables to conductive thread, and even a little bad sewing skills thrown down in between. Get started with your first soft interactive electronics project by learning some of the basics first.

[01:24] Materials for a Wearable Project- Microcontrollers, conductive thread and inputs/outputs

Conductive Thread [02:12] Conductive Thread

What is Conductive Thread? [02:17] What is Conductive Thread?

Choosing what Conductive Thread to use for Your Project [03:40] Choosing what Conductive Thread to use for Your Project

The 5 Things about Conductive Thread to Know [04:42] The 5 Things about Conductive Thread to Know

Conductive Materials [06:30] Conductive Materials

Materials shown in this section:



How to use your Mulitmeter for test for Continuity [07:00] How to use your Mulitmeter for test for Continuity

Materials shown in this section:



Microcontrollers for Wearables [09:15] Microcontrollers for Wearables



Microcontrollers: The LilypadArduino [10:50] Microcontrollers: The LilypadArduino



Microcontrollers: The Flora by Adafruit [12:39] Microcontrollers: The Flora by Adafruit



Microcontrollers: The Gemma by Adafruit [15:17] Microcontrollers: The Gemma by Adafruit



Microcontrollers: The Photon Wearable Shield from Sparkfun [17:00] Microcontrollers: The Photon Wearable Shield from Sparkfun

[17:25] The Fun Stuff: Inputs and Outputs

[24:22] Putting it in Practice and Sewing a Project



Tips in this section:

Keep your fabric taut with an embroidery hoop Design your circuit, even use tailor chalk to plan it out Use beeswax or some type of wax to keep your ends from fraying When sewing to a pad on a microcontroller, make sure you do 2-3 loops to ensure a solid connection and coverage on the pad. Keep your stiches uniform and the gaps uniform, and ideally small. When knotting off your thread, use nail polish to "set it" and help the thread tails from fraying Cut your tails close to the knot to avoid them touching other circuits



Materials used in this section are the following:

[25:26] Using Nail Polish to stop Threads from Fraying



Some Questionable Sewing [26:00] Some Questionable Sewing

Judge me freely here, as you watch my outstanding sewing skills.



Lighting up the awesome Cat shirt [26:48] Lighting up the awesome Cat shirt

This is the moment of truth - will the circuits sewed into the shirt work?

Additional Resources

What is Continuity

Adding Third Party Boards to the Arduino IDE

Sparkfun: Sewing with Conductive Thread

Adafruit: Overview of Conductive Thread

ETextile Lounge

Sparkfun: ETextile Basics

Kobakant DIY

Instructables: Make your own conductive thread

Adafruit: Wearables Learn Section

As always, please do share anything that you might make! Feel free to leave questions or comments below, and thanks for watching!