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5. E-textiles

Research

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E-textiles are textiles combined with electronics to create fabrics that can light up, sense touch, detect movement, or react to the environment. They use materials like conductive thread, conductive fabric, soft sensors, and small boards such as Lilypad, Arduino, or Microbit.

What I Wanted to Learn

I wanted to understand how electronics can be integrated into fabric, how soft circuits work, and how simple textile sensors can be created for wearable projects.

What I Found

  1. Soft Circuits

Soft circuits are sewn circuits using conductive thread instead of wires. They connect LEDs, sensors, and boards directly onto fabric.

  1. Conductive Materials

E-textiles use special materials like conductive fabric, conductive thread, copper tape, and resistive fabrics that allow electricity to flow through textile surfaces.

  1. Textile Sensors

There are fabric-based sensors such as pressure sensors, stretch sensors, and touch sensors. These sensors change resistance when the fabric is pressed, stretched, or touched.

  1. Microcontrollers

Boards like Lilypad, Microbit, and Arduino are used to read the sensors and control outputs like LEDs or sound.

References & Inspiration

This video shows a woman wearing a dress with LED lights. I liked it because it mixes fashion and technology in a creative way. It inspired me and made me feel that I could do something like this in the future, even though I don’t yet have the skills or materials to make it now.

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This video from Instructables and the two images show simple light-up bracelets. The tutorial explains how a basic wearable light works, which was very helpful because I had no idea how it worked before. It was a great starting point for understanding wearable electronics.

Tools

maker tape
conductive thread
led
battery circuit
neddle
battery holder

Process and workflow

I made a simple light-up bracelet using conductive maker tape, an LED, and a battery. I connected the tape to form a basic circuit, making sure the LED and battery were placed correctly. When the circuit was closed, the LED lit up, showing how a simple wearable electronic circuit works.

  • STEP 1

Cut out a piece of felt using the rectangle template. Place two horizontal pieces of Maker Tape on the back as shown. Connect another piece of Maker tape and wrap it over the edge to the front, stopping at the location of the battery. Add a loop of Maker Tape on top of the line of tape, then place the battery on top of it with the positive side of the battery facing up. Place Maker Tape over the battery, referencing the template for positioning Continue laying the tape down along the line, stopping at the location of the LED. Continue to cover the rest of the lines with Maker Tape

  • STEP 2

Bend the LED legs flat, then at 90-degree angles as shown. Place the LED, aligning the positive (longer) and negative (shorter) legs. Secure the LED in place by laying another piece of Maker Tape over each of the LEDís legs. Add a loop of Maker Tape on top of the horizontal pieces at the bottom to create a closure for the bracelet.

  • STEP 3

Wrap the bracelet around your wrist, connecting the tape loop to the Maker Tape on the other side. Allowing these pieces to touch will close the switch and the LED should light up!

Results

I first copied the bracelet from the inspiration video to understand how it works. After that, I tried it again using a different material to be more creative. I used a small piece of leather and shaped it like a flower to make a light-up bracelet. This experiment helped me see that with more time and practice, I can create more advanced wearable designs in the future.