Light Up Leggings

Create a light show with these light up LEDs.  Wear them dancing and all eyes in the room will be on you.  Wear them running and drivers will know to get out of the way!

This is super easy to do even if its your first time building a circuit.

I submitted these leggings to the Soft Circuit Contest!  Check out all the awesome projects submitted and submit a project yourself!

Step 1 Materials

1. Leggings
2. Conductive Thread - sparkfun.com
3. 2 Battery Holders - sparkfun.com
4. 2 Coin Cell Batteries (3V)
5. 2 220 ohm resistors
6. 12 LEDs
7. Metal Clasp or Snap (not in picture)
8. Needle 
9. Cardboard - 5" wide and 9-12" long, cut the edges so they are rounded, this cardboard insert will be used to help you sew

Comments

[jkroeber]

These are awesome! Where did you buy these LED lights? I'm having trouble figuring out what kind to use!

[An Najm]

You could use the lights found on christmas ornaments ;)

[kanders]

How do you wash or clean them?

[monstermaitis]

you mentioned that you used led beads, where did you get them?

[happyloser]

you have beautiful legs i think i love them

[desmondtheredx]

agreed

[Tibicen_Linnei]

I'm totally making a few pairs of these to dance the nights away while I'm doing the festival tour this year. Thanks! :]

[physicistlisa]

Yeah it is a GREAT idea i'd never thought of! much cheaper and easier than an actual switch makes me wonder if a hook and eye could work well on a stretch fabric too!

[WingsandFences]

Very cool! :)

[inness]

I immediately thought of, um, well, a *different* placement for the lights, perhaps for a more 'adult' party or an intimate tête-à-tête. Proper insulation will probably be crucial. ;)

[crak-a-bottle]

On the other hand, strategically placed, little electric shocks can be quite good fun ;)
if you're into that, although reading your comment I'm not particularly worried about offending you anyway

[inness]

No offense taken and agreement rendered. It's all about the wattage. :D

[crak-a-bottle]

:D it's good to find someone like-minded.
I normally get odd looks when I make that sort of comment xD

[sunshiine]

Yes, this would be pretty awesome on jeans! Nice job!

[DieCastoms]

Disguising some LEDs among rhinestones on a jean jacket would be awesome and equally nice looking when powered or not!

[NoseyNick]

They SHOULD be in series. You don't want to put multiple LEDs in parallel on one resistor - you'll find the small manufacturing differences in the LED forward voltages will essentially mean one or two of the LEDs will hog almost all the current and the others will be too dim.

If you connect them in series, they all share the same current so will all be approximately the same brightness, however you'll have to add up the total forward-voltage, and subtract from the supply voltage (which must be greater) to determine the best value for the current-limiting resistor.

... then, if you wish, you can put several of THOSE CHAINS (each with their own resistor) in parallel if you wanted more LEDs.

EG:

+ LED LED LED LED LED LED RESISTOR -
+ LED LED LED LED LED LED RESISTOR -
+ LED LED LED LED LED LED RESISTOR -

[NoseyNick]

Actually, I've done some maths... IF you're running off +3V, you don't have enough voltage to break the forward-voltage of 6 in series. Typical forward-voltage of a red LED is about 1.7V-2V, leaving about 1V from your 3V supply. 1V across a 221ohm resistor gives about 5mA, which is pretty low even for one LED, but even worse divided between 6 in parallel, especially if the one with the lowest forward-voltage steals almost all the current off the others. Really you'd need one resistor per LED, then connect the resistor-LEDs in parallel, like:


+ LED resistor -

+ LED resistor -

+ LED resistor -

[etc etc]

Alternatively, find yourself something like a 9V battery, then you could do:


+ LED LED LED resistor -

+ LED LED LED resistor -

+ LED LED LED resistor -

[etc etc]

... with (let me see) (9V-2V-2V-2V)/0.1A = 300ohm resistors

[LongToe]

Looks Great! It would be good for Halloween too.

Not to be overly critical but if I remember circuits correctly, one of the sketches shows the LEDs in series rather than parallel. Perhaps that was part of the design process.

[Jack A Lopez]

I concur. Just to be clear, I attached a diagram of, what I'm guessing, is the way she actually wired each leg. 6 leds are wired in parallel with each other, and that group of 6 is wired in series with a single resistor and a switch.

[paul_sh]

Yes, the first one is in series.

[thafunki1]

nice legs !!

[pattyaitch]

My twelve year old Granddaughter is a figure skater. Wowee~!

[Carleyy]

this would make a figure skating outfit stand out!

[mastercob]

Can they be washed?

[KNOTTYMAN]

SCHWEET!!!!!

[kingmii]

sooo cute. I wish i was a girl i already love leggings but this makes them even better.

[the_gella]

If you didn't want to use the battery holders (they could be a bit bulky) you could go for a smaller type of coin cell and make a soft battery holder using felt & conductive thread.

How stretchy is the conductive thread you are using? Does it strain at all when you put the leggings on?

[sephiroth67]

That's an awesome idea for a switch lol, I would never have thought about something so clever...

[chndt2008]

Avatar! Na'vi ....! : )

[AlternateLives]

That could work.

[AlternateLives]

Yet another Idea Instructables users have provided that could be used to create budget films...

I love this site!

Cool Idea!

[PinkHeart]

That's soo creative. Just in time of Halloween costumes!

[plugable]

Very cool! Beacuse I am a man, but If I weren't I will do it!

[scoochmaroo]

You could do it to your jeans!

[Carleyy]

thanks : )

You should try making your own soft circuit and submitting it to the soft circuit contest!

[jiajunwang]

it will be an eye catcher...