Introduction: Lithium Rain Radiant Beacon of Righteousness (Blinking I-hoodie)
The only thing you can't buy from the shiney new Apple Store is an I-hoodie, an Instructablized version of the hoodie with light up logos of the instructables hand and the Apple Macintosh* logo. This is the Instruct-intosh version hoodie, well, it can be any garment or accessory like a light up Instructables Hand-bag (maybe next time).
I do not have conductive thread nor electroluminescent panels so this is a ghetto version of making light up stuff to bedazzle your clothing.
This was going to be the I-Pear logo from ICarly TV show but that looked like it was from Disney so I picked the lesser of two evils.
By the way, remember me? I'm the dude with the Adrian monk Disneytopian Blinking Hand of Righteousness (turn-signal glove) www.instructables.com/id/Adrian_Monk_Disneytopian_Blinking_Hand_of_Righteou/. You can consider this a follow-on project to go with the light up glove or an accessory to accessorize. And them pants were spiffy.
Well, Intructables member Adrian monk grew up to be Lithium Rain. Any references to Lithium Rain can be addressed to Instructables member Lithium Rain www.instructables.com/member/Lithium+Rain/ herself. She is the reigning Radiant Beacon of Righteousness, such a royal p...... princess.
* Apple, Macintosh, and the apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Corp. Steve Jobs and his henchmen/women have the potential to remotely fry my computer so don't disparage the fruit. To alternative operating systems besides OS X, resistance is futile. (Okay, I promise this is the last ible I do on a Windows/Linux machine. Ima gonna finish but why can't Mac window buttons be on the right side where they belong?)
I do not have conductive thread nor electroluminescent panels so this is a ghetto version of making light up stuff to bedazzle your clothing.
This was going to be the I-Pear logo from ICarly TV show but that looked like it was from Disney so I picked the lesser of two evils.
By the way, remember me? I'm the dude with the Adrian monk Disneytopian Blinking Hand of Righteousness (turn-signal glove) www.instructables.com/id/Adrian_Monk_Disneytopian_Blinking_Hand_of_Righteou/. You can consider this a follow-on project to go with the light up glove or an accessory to accessorize. And them pants were spiffy.
Well, Intructables member Adrian monk grew up to be Lithium Rain. Any references to Lithium Rain can be addressed to Instructables member Lithium Rain www.instructables.com/member/Lithium+Rain/ herself. She is the reigning Radiant Beacon of Righteousness, such a royal p...... princess.
* Apple, Macintosh, and the apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Corp. Steve Jobs and his henchmen/women have the potential to remotely fry my computer so don't disparage the fruit. To alternative operating systems besides OS X, resistance is futile. (Okay, I promise this is the last ible I do on a Windows/Linux machine. Ima gonna finish but why can't Mac window buttons be on the right side where they belong?)
Step 1: Some Stuff and Stuffing...
You need a few things to make the Instruct-intosh hoodie.
If you just want to make a highly visible hoodie without lights, try the robo-hoodie www.instructables.com/id/Robohoodie-Instructables-Robot-Hoodie/ and of course, if your spoiled brat has an American Girl doll, make a robo-hoodie for her too www.instructables.com/id/Robohoodie_for_American_Girl_Dolls/.
List of Stuff:
sacrificial hoodie or other garment you want to mod
logo stencils or patterns
(click on the little i icon on the image to download and use the same graphics below)
light colored marker or tailors chalk to mark material
clear adhesive shelf liner (contact paper)
(flexible vinyl plastic material can be substituted)
sewing machine
(you can do this by hand but it might take some time and detail)
flat polyester fiberfill batting
(it comes in rolls from the craft store, the other lumpy bulk stuff will also work if you flatten it out)
packaging tape or duct tape
LED battery powered light up unit of your own design or bike-safety flasher unit
If you just want to make a highly visible hoodie without lights, try the robo-hoodie www.instructables.com/id/Robohoodie-Instructables-Robot-Hoodie/ and of course, if your spoiled brat has an American Girl doll, make a robo-hoodie for her too www.instructables.com/id/Robohoodie_for_American_Girl_Dolls/.
List of Stuff:
sacrificial hoodie or other garment you want to mod
logo stencils or patterns
(click on the little i icon on the image to download and use the same graphics below)
light colored marker or tailors chalk to mark material
clear adhesive shelf liner (contact paper)
(flexible vinyl plastic material can be substituted)
sewing machine
(you can do this by hand but it might take some time and detail)
flat polyester fiberfill batting
(it comes in rolls from the craft store, the other lumpy bulk stuff will also work if you flatten it out)
packaging tape or duct tape
LED battery powered light up unit of your own design or bike-safety flasher unit
Step 2: You're Such a Cut-up...
Print out the images that you downloaded from the previous step. Print on a sheet of thin cardstock to make the stencil pattern easier to work with.
Estimate how big you want the cutouts. Use your printer controls or software to adjust the printed sized of the graphics. I just printed out the graphics as big as a regular sheet of letter paper. Of course, you may need to consider if your light source will be able to illuminate it or else plan on rigging up more lights or LEDs.
Use a razor blade, utility knife, or scissors to cut out the inside of the patterns to make a stencil.
Place the stencil or pattern centered on the back or position it where it looks nice on the garment.
You should just be able to hold the stencil as you trace or tape it down if desired.
With tailor's chalk, a pencil or light colored marker to match the fabric, trace the pattern onto the fabric.
Estimate how big you want the cutouts. Use your printer controls or software to adjust the printed sized of the graphics. I just printed out the graphics as big as a regular sheet of letter paper. Of course, you may need to consider if your light source will be able to illuminate it or else plan on rigging up more lights or LEDs.
Use a razor blade, utility knife, or scissors to cut out the inside of the patterns to make a stencil.
Place the stencil or pattern centered on the back or position it where it looks nice on the garment.
You should just be able to hold the stencil as you trace or tape it down if desired.
With tailor's chalk, a pencil or light colored marker to match the fabric, trace the pattern onto the fabric.
Step 3: You've Got Me in Stitches...
Go around the pattern with a double row of straight stitches. If you have a machine that can do fancier edge binding or zig-zag stitches similar to an embroidered or bound edge, go ahead. This is to keep the fabric from fraying once we cut out the pattern and to give it some stability as we work with it.
If you have the clear shelf liner paper from the same dollar store, you may want to double it for our use because we will sew through it. The needle stitches make a line of perforations that you do not want to tear. Just stick a layer of shelf line over the other, carefully working out all of the air bubbles.
I opted not to use an opaque white shelf liner material because my light source wasn't bright enough to light it up well. You will see later that the white polyester batting fills in as the color and is able to transmit more light.
Cut out a piece that will cover your stencil pattern and generously overlap it by an inch or two. You will trim it later.
With the non-sticky side of the shelf liner paper facing up, place under the garment and position it so that it is under the entire stencil pattern. You can tape or pin in place or live dangerously and just hold it there until you can get it under the presser foot of your sewing machine.
Sew around the pattern twice. You should have a double seam with an 1/8th of an inch between the row of seams. Keep the plastic and fabric taut as you go.
If you have the clear shelf liner paper from the same dollar store, you may want to double it for our use because we will sew through it. The needle stitches make a line of perforations that you do not want to tear. Just stick a layer of shelf line over the other, carefully working out all of the air bubbles.
I opted not to use an opaque white shelf liner material because my light source wasn't bright enough to light it up well. You will see later that the white polyester batting fills in as the color and is able to transmit more light.
Cut out a piece that will cover your stencil pattern and generously overlap it by an inch or two. You will trim it later.
With the non-sticky side of the shelf liner paper facing up, place under the garment and position it so that it is under the entire stencil pattern. You can tape or pin in place or live dangerously and just hold it there until you can get it under the presser foot of your sewing machine.
Sew around the pattern twice. You should have a double seam with an 1/8th of an inch between the row of seams. Keep the plastic and fabric taut as you go.
Step 4: Peel Your Apple...
Time to expose the core.
Turn over on the back. You can now trim away the excess plastic leaving about an inch border around your sewn pattern.
On the back, time to peel away the adhesive liner covering the inside area of your stencil pattern. You can leave the liner on the outside border to act as a light mask.
You may need to use an awl or seam ripper or utility knife to pick up a corner of the liner so you can peel off the rest.
On the front, time to do some fabric surgery. Remove the flap of fabric covering your stencil pattern. Pinch the fabric to make the initial incision. Snip a hole and run the scissors along the edge of your sewn pattern.
Turn over on the back. You can now trim away the excess plastic leaving about an inch border around your sewn pattern.
On the back, time to peel away the adhesive liner covering the inside area of your stencil pattern. You can leave the liner on the outside border to act as a light mask.
You may need to use an awl or seam ripper or utility knife to pick up a corner of the liner so you can peel off the rest.
On the front, time to do some fabric surgery. Remove the flap of fabric covering your stencil pattern. Pinch the fabric to make the initial incision. Snip a hole and run the scissors along the edge of your sewn pattern.
Step 5: Pad It Out...
Take some polyester batting and lay it on the cutout. I layered about four layers thick so that it has some light transmission and diffusing properties.
You need this fluffy layer to act as the photon transport matrix to spread the light. I guess you could design something similar to a thin LCD panel. More discussion here www.instructables.com/id/Light-Tablet/. If you really want find out about how light really moves, just ask our resident particle geek, www.instructables.com/member/kelseymh/ .
You may want to experiment with your light source to see how thick your padding layer should be. Trim to fit coming to about 1/2 inch short of the edges.
Use duct tape or clear packaging tape to close in the back of this layer. The free edge of the sewn cutout gives you a place to anchor the tape at the edges.
You need this fluffy layer to act as the photon transport matrix to spread the light. I guess you could design something similar to a thin LCD panel. More discussion here www.instructables.com/id/Light-Tablet/. If you really want find out about how light really moves, just ask our resident particle geek, www.instructables.com/member/kelseymh/ .
You may want to experiment with your light source to see how thick your padding layer should be. Trim to fit coming to about 1/2 inch short of the edges.
Use duct tape or clear packaging tape to close in the back of this layer. The free edge of the sewn cutout gives you a place to anchor the tape at the edges.
Step 6: Light It Up...
What is great about dollar discount stores is that you can find just about anything to mod. I am using the same bike-safety blinker units that worked for the turn-signal glove.
It was getting late so I decided to just use the blinker as-is. I could have modded it to extend the switch so that it would be more accessible. I guess it would be cool to have a switch on the sleeve or somewhere. Note that pressing the switch will turn on the lights and cycle it through several blinking patterns for the LEDs.
Take a look at this ible www.instructables.com/id/Keith-Ki-Domo-kun-Instructables-Keith-Kid-Domo-k/ to see what microelectronic surgery is necessary to mod these units.
You could probably also stuff this with a bunch of LED throwies or joule thiefs or a string of LED lights from your Christmas tree. And also throw in that arduino to make it blink in colors and patterns.
Test the placement of your light unit.
Put on an additional layer of reinforcement tape and cut out a slit so that the lights will be immersed in the batting layer.
Install lights.
Attach and secure light unit with another piece of duct tape.
Go out and play in the street.
It was getting late so I decided to just use the blinker as-is. I could have modded it to extend the switch so that it would be more accessible. I guess it would be cool to have a switch on the sleeve or somewhere. Note that pressing the switch will turn on the lights and cycle it through several blinking patterns for the LEDs.
Take a look at this ible www.instructables.com/id/Keith-Ki-Domo-kun-Instructables-Keith-Kid-Domo-k/ to see what microelectronic surgery is necessary to mod these units.
You could probably also stuff this with a bunch of LED throwies or joule thiefs or a string of LED lights from your Christmas tree. And also throw in that arduino to make it blink in colors and patterns.
Test the placement of your light unit.
Put on an additional layer of reinforcement tape and cut out a slit so that the lights will be immersed in the batting layer.
Install lights.
Attach and secure light unit with another piece of duct tape.
Go out and play in the street.