Do you like tech? Do you like fashion? Did you know you can combine the two to make some stellar electronic style? There are some amazing kits out there you can use to bring some more technology and light into your closet. Let’s dive into some projects that range from beginner to advanced experience levels that you can ask for this holiday season and dive into some Do-It-Yourself fun.
Beginner
TechnoChic kits
From bowties to flowers, TechnoChic has you covered! Their kits come with all the materials you need to make either 10 light-up paper bow ties or 10 blinking flowers. You will get the chance to learn about LEDs and circuits and make some awesome fashion accessories. They are fun and quick five to 10 minute projects and a great starting place to dive in. Keep an eye out because they might also have an amazing unicorn headband set coming soon as well!
Bowties ($24.99 set of 10)
Flowers ($24.99 set of 10)
ThinkGeek Space Skirts
Show off the beauty of space with these light up skirts rom Think Geek. The skirts aren’t actually sold as kits, but there is definitely some assembly required! The star skirts comes with over 250 lights, while the galaxy one comes with a more subtle 60 lights. The lights come on a large strand that you get to string up and attach to the underside of the skirt. It is definitely a fun beginner project.
Twinkling Stars Skirt $29.99-$39.99
Twinkling Milk Way Skirt $39.99-$59.99
Intermediate
Adafruit Patch kit
Up your fashion tech skills by bringing some conductive thread into the mix. This is no normal sewing thread. This can actually carry an electric charge! That way you can carry electricity from your battery to different areas throughout the animal badge that will bring some light to your style. Adafruit offers both fox and bear badge kits, so pick your favorite animal and get sewing.
Fox Badge Kit $14.95
Bear Badge Kit $14.95
Advanced
Want to bring your own unique wearable tech idea to life? Then you might want to go for StitchKit, a project kit that is built to help you make technology equipped clothing. While it doesn’t have as much guidance as the other projects, the sky is the limit on what you can make. It comes with LED lights, sensors, microcontrollers for programming your fashion, and more. The kit was created alongside MakeFashion, an awesome group that brings circuits, engineering, and lights onto the fashion runway at a yearly competition in Canada.
Learn More
5 Fashion Tech Blogs to follow
https://www.launchmetrics.com/resources/blog/fashion-tech-blogs
Electronics Projects for Dummies
No one who reads this magazine is a dummy, but this Dummies website has a great step-by-step set of tutorials for a coin toss circuit that also teaches the process of designing and building electronics projects.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/consumer-electronics/electronics/Electronics-Projects.html