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Archive: Fashion Tech

February 9, 2010

Turn Signal Bike Jackets

From Leah Buechley's photostream via the CRAFT Flickr pool, Leah shares: "on the steps of Shih Chien U, turn signals prototyped by me w/ parts from the taipei electronics markets & made by (awesome) Shih Chien University fashion students" in Taiwan.

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How-To: Make a Turn Signal Bike Jacket

February 4, 2010

In the Maker Shed: Conductive Booster Pack

In the Maker Shed:

The Conductive Booster Pack Kit is the perfect companion for our Fashioning Technology book by Syuzi Pakhchyan. The kit contains a collection of conductive materials that are often only available in much larger quantities, making it a more affordable way to sample various materials.

Features:

1/4 yard of conductive fabric

25 feet of conductive thread

2 feet of conductive tape

3 inches conductive hook and loop (you might call it Velcro, but we can't)

Coin Cell Battery

Assorted LEDs

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January 26, 2010

Illuminated Couture Jacket

Wow, this embedded LED coat by Wendy Legro is simply stunning. I love the origami-style tucks and folds. I wish there were more information and process photos! [via Fashioning Technology]

January 25, 2010

RFID Tags with Conductive Thread antennas

Matt Mets @ MAKE writes:

Here's an older project by Micah Dowty, that I just found out about: a homebrew soft circuit RFID tag. Not content to just make a homebrew RFID reader using a Propeller microcontroller, he proceeded to design an RFID tag using only an ATtiny85 microcontroller and an inductor, and built an antenna for it using conductive thread. The result: a completely homebrew RFID setup, which is compatible with EM4102-style RFID tags. Awesome!

An RFID tag is a passive (non-powered, in most cases) electronic device that stores information. It's how all those touch-based payment systems work. They're in your credit cards, passports, office key fobs, and are used as security devices on retail products. What's remarkable about this one is that it's actually embedded into the fabric, since the information is stored on the tiny chip, and the antenna, required to transmit the signal to the reader circuit, is sewn from conductive thread.

January 21, 2010

Gown Made of Discarded Auto Radiator Copper

New Zealand's Victoria University recent graduate Emma Whiteside made this incredible 18th century-style gown from discarded automotive radiator copper for the 2009 World of WearableArt show. The dress weighs 22 pounds and took 200 hours to sew. Check out this closeup:

January 13, 2010

How-To: Evening Dress iPod Remote

If you ever need to remotely control your iPod while out at a fancy event, Aniomagic and Lynne Bruning show us how to sew a iPod remote into an evening dress.

January 11, 2010

Sonic Capes

Ricardo Nascimento and Jader Scalzaretto developed this pair of performative interactive capes that control sounds based on the embedded sensors. [via Fashioning Technology]

January 9, 2010

Mobius Strip Fashion

The final installment of Diana Eng's Fairytale Fasion series is about incorporating a mobius strip into a purse strap. One savvy reader suggested that a mobius strip collar might also be interesting! Check out the video to see how it works.

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January 8, 2010

Craft Meets Tech at MIT

In this week's CRAFT Video, come with me to the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There I met with e-textiles pioneer Leah Buechley and students from her research group called "High-Low Tech," which Leah describes as "blends" of technology with traditional crafts to make new toolkits for creativity and learning. I had so much fun checking out the amazingly brilliant and fun projects by Hannah Perner-Wilson, Emily Lovell, David Mellis, and Bonifaz Kaufmann, I had a hard time leaving!

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, watch it on YouTube, Vimeo, Blip, or download the m4v video.

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January 4, 2010

Stretch-Sensing Bracelet

Today I'm at the MIT Media Lab meeting with some of the most awesome folks in wearable technology, including Hannah Perner-Wilson, a grad student in the High Low Tech research group. She made the above stretch-sensitive bracelet, which uses conductive thread and resistive yarn to make an LED light up when the bracelet is stretched.

December 30, 2009

Passion-Sensing Scarf

Check out ArduinoFun's LilyPad Arduino "passion-sensing" scarf. It uses infrared emitter/detector pairs to sense when one wearer is near another, changing the color of the onboard LED. I wonder if this matching scarf set is an early Valentine's Day prototype

December 14, 2009

Animating Textiles

What a lovely video about animating textiles with SMA (shape memory alloys aka "muscle wire"), which expants and contracts when varying currents are passed through it. These are studies in the field by Lynda Fletcher, a student at Central Saint Martins. [via Fashioning Technology]

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