This years Valentine’s Day tutorial appears more complex than Stabby Valentine or the Hello Kitty Punchy Valentine, but thats just because of the fancy French Knots!
Look beyond the embroidery and you’ll find a basic LED circuit with some hidden gems on how to sew with conductive thread, mark traces, and hide the circuitry. In the end the Heart Pillow is a lot like Valentine’s Day… look deep and you’ll see that love is in the details.
Design your embroidery pattern. I used a combination of heart patterns available on my Bernina sewing machine embellished with hand sewn French knots.
Select your base fashion fabric for the embroidery work. I chose a lightweight white corduroy fabric for its durability, weight, and stability. Using red and white thread and embroidery floss embellish the fashion fabric with your design.
Choose your LEDs! These are 1.8mm red light emitting diodes.
Draw the electronic circuit strategically placing the LEDs into your embroidery design
- positive trace is red
- the negative trace is black
- the light emitting diodes bridge the two traces
- the battery is on the right fabric edge
On a translucent piece of fabric, such as a gauze or organza, sew the positive trace with conductive thread and mark it with red thread or marker.About an inch away sew the negative trace with conductive thread and mark it with black thread or marker. Place this conductive fabric on the reverse side of the fabric.
Insert the LEDs by pushing the metal leads from the front of the fashion fabric to the back lining. The metal leads will bend to connect with the positive and negative traces.
Use a hand sewing needle with conductive thread to connect the positive metal lead to the positive trace. Repeat the process for the negative metal lead to the negative trace.
Connect the battery to test your circuit!
Once you are sure the circuit works with all the LEDs add trim and sew the front and back together.
Insert a pillow form and watch the love glow.
You can also find this DIY Tutorial on Instructables: Hearts A’Glow!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!
