Silverell Conductive thread from 2008. 75 yard spool. Unfortunately as of 2012 Silverell changed its manufacturing and/or supplier and this style/quality of thread is no longer available. Their website is also difficult to navigate, doesn’t provide data sheets, and doesn’t have product images. This supplier is a challenging place to shop for the eTextile novice.    

  2 ply Stainless Steel wound on a 75 yard spool. This conductive thread frays at the ends and is pesky to work with. If you want a stainless steel thread I suggest the 4 ply as it provides more stability and less resistance.    

  Speed up the creation of your electronic traces by using a double needle on your home sewing machine to sew parallel traces!   Needle size from left to right: 2mm size 90 3mm size 90 4mm size 90 6mm size 100     The resistance of an 8 inch trace using a top conductive thread from Mitsifuji is 14 […]

At the beginning of a project I take a few moments to mark the polarity of my LED’s using nail polish, magic marker, or seed beads and then bending the metal lead into a specific shape. This helps my accuracy when sewing the LED’s into my eTextiles. I encourage you to take a few moments to do this as it […]

  Use a cording foot with a zig-zag stitch to sew electric at wire to fabric.   This is a Bernina Cording Foot what has two grooves in which to guide the wires for parallel traces.   By using a matching colored bobbin thread the traces are easily identified.   This process can work with a wide variety of wire […]

  RESISTANCE hand sewn 8” trace has a resistance of 7 ohms machine sewn top thread 4” trace before thread broke has a resistance of 1 ohms machine sewn bottom thread 8” trace has a resistance of 1 ohms THREAD QUALITY difficult to thread a size 24 crewel needle frays and whiskers medium ease to sew by hand, breaks as […]

  RESISTANCE hand sewn 8” trace has a resistance of 7 ohms machine sewn top thread 8” trace has a resistance of 13 ohms machine sewn bottom thread 8” trace has a resistance of 7 ohms THREAD QUALITY easy to thread a size 24 crewel needle does not fray or whisker easy to sew by hand as well as machine […]

  RESISTANCE hand sewn 8” trace has a resistance of 100 ohms machine sewn top thread 8” trace has a resistance of 250 ohms machine sewn bottom thread 8” trace has a resistance of 125 ohms THREAD QUALITY easy to thread a size 24 crewel needle frays or whiskers easy to sew by hand as well as machine thread is […]

  6 ply stainless steel thread from Bekaert Stainless Technologies comes on an industrial spool, has minimal resistance of approximately 1 ohm/foot, and easily whiskers.       Due to the diameter of the thread the best application method is couching or weaving.     Other options for stainless steel thread are 2 ply and 4ply.  

  All the LEDs glowing in a row!