Introduction
Wearing an ugly holiday sweater seems to be a new tradition, one we wholehearted embrace. Whole cottage industries have sprung up to sell people ugly apparel. But not forgotten are the sweaters of yester year, ones that were hand made with love. Ones that were never intentionally ugly, but ended up having a certain ugly charm to them.
We celebrate that age old tradition in this guide by showing you how to create your own light up, ugly sweater. All it takes is a few LEDs, some conductive thread, and the willpower to spend a lot of hard work making something purposely look bad.
This project is also a great example of the different effects you can do with our "no programing needed" Blink/Fade Board. Wow event your most Grinch like friends with the joy of a blinking LED.
Video Overview
Featured Document
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Lay out your sweater and parts.
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Arrange parts and embellishments that you wish to add.
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Now that your parts are laid out on your shirt, create a simple wiring diagram.
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Using regular thread sew down your electronics.
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First, hook up your Screw Terminal to the Positive and Ground pins on the Blink/ Fade Board. Then screw in your battery holder.
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Use Conductive Thread to connect the Positive Sides of your LEDs to the pins on the Blink/ Fade Board.
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Ideally you'd first wire in your battery to the Blink/ Fade Board. This way you could test each line of LEDs to make sure your connections are strong.
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If any of your LEDs are not on, or not doing their effects, check for loose bits of thread.
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The most common cause of LEDs not working is that your Conductive Thread isn't tight enough around the LED holes. You can always use a bit of thread and do some tight loops around your LED holes, just make sure you're going over your original loops.
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At this point you can just sew on all the fabric embellishments you want as long as your'e using regular thread.
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If you're using a AAA or AA Battery Holder you should really sew a pocket onto your project, otherwise your battery holder wires may snap.
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