Light Up Costume

Step 4 Securing the El Wire

I used a variety of things to secure the el wire to the different elements of the costume.

For the main body (jumpsuit and gloves), I hand-sewed the wire (way too thick to go under my machine!) using a whipstitch with quadrupled thread (meaning it ran through the eye of the needle four times instead of just one) in a light color so that the weight of the thread would not interfere with the line when the wire was lit.  It's essential when doing a project as large as this to knot off the thread every few inches.  The reason for this is that if one area breaks or snags, you don't want it to affect the rest of the costume!

For the helmet, I sewed the wire onto the black stretch knit fabric which I used to cover it.  Since the fabric was a sports mesh, it was easy to see through, but impossible to see into.

The headphones were glued onto the helmet, and the wire glued to the headphones with Krazy Glue.  I tried several different epoxies and adhesives, and Krazy Glue came out to be the clear winner.

Comments

[J-Teck]

What helmet did you use

[McNoodle]

Where did you get the helmet?

[paperairplanecreator]

I think its just a regular moto-cross helmet.

[aterese]

could you also use fishing wire to sew with? It would be clear then both in the daylight and dark and extra sturdy...

[scoochmaroo]

Absolutely! I don't knot fishing wire well, so it wasn't a great option for me. Really, even thread is invisible from the distance of a few feet.