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Step 7Assembly Rev 3
This revision was a lot better than the than the last in terms of time till built. Plus, having removable switches saved my sanity more than once.
Start off by making the base. It's just one quilting quarter folded in half. Put a layer of batting on the top and sew, leaving a hole to invert it. Push the thing through the hole and you basically have a pillow type thing. I quilted it so it was easier to work with. Use plain thread and go nuts. I did diamonds on this one, but maybe next time I'll put a dragon in back, or something cool.
Now, on to the switches. I like this design because you can basically make a ton of these ahead of time and just use what you want. start by using a scrap piece of cardboard, paper, or fabric and cut a pear shape out of it. Use that as a guide to cut a top and bottom for each switch. I cut one color for each bottom and a different color for the tops, but you can be creative and do what you want.
Cut down your guide to a lollipop shape that will easily fit inside the switch. Lengthen the "stick" so it can wrap over the edge of the "pear." Cut the shape out of the fusing and conductive fabric and fuse one side of the conductive fabric.
Remove the backing from the fusing material and fuse it to the top of the fabric that will be on the bottom and the bottom of the fabric that will be on the top. Wrap the extra bit around the top.
Head on over to your sewing machine and put batting with holes between the top and bottom fabric. Sew outside the conductive fabric and skip over the "stick" part of the switch. I found that it's possible to sew the top conductive fabric to the bottom creating a short. It's better not to sew through the conductive fabric. Attach snaps and the switch is done. I found it easier to use the male snap for all the bottom/GND connections and the female snap for all the tops. This makes all the switches interchangeable.
The circuit:
The thing about cutting rounds is that you have a lot of extra bits. I took my scraps, fused big pieces of fusing to big pieces of conductive fabric and used those to cut out the smaller rectangles I used as pads. Roughly lay out your switchesand fuse the pads to the base with enough room to sew a line to them and have a snap. The foot of the sewing machine I used didn't take kindly to being real close to the snap, so keep that in mind and give yourself some space. Since I got conductive thread that could go in my sewing machine I just sewed a line from pad to pad and back. I had to go slow or the thread would break, but it was a ton faster than hand sewing. Also with conductive thread on the bobbin and needle, I got a really good solid connection. The stuff frays like crazy, but a little craft glue or Elmers clears that right up. Try to keep the lines well away from each other and you shouldn't have any issues.
Final assembly:
Snap on all your switches, connect the board, load code and you're done. I used wire to get from the board to the pad and then just sewed the wire to the base by hand. For the next version, I will mount the board in a plastic box with snaps to attach it to the base so that idle fingers do not pull it apart.
Start off by making the base. It's just one quilting quarter folded in half. Put a layer of batting on the top and sew, leaving a hole to invert it. Push the thing through the hole and you basically have a pillow type thing. I quilted it so it was easier to work with. Use plain thread and go nuts. I did diamonds on this one, but maybe next time I'll put a dragon in back, or something cool.
Now, on to the switches. I like this design because you can basically make a ton of these ahead of time and just use what you want. start by using a scrap piece of cardboard, paper, or fabric and cut a pear shape out of it. Use that as a guide to cut a top and bottom for each switch. I cut one color for each bottom and a different color for the tops, but you can be creative and do what you want.
Cut down your guide to a lollipop shape that will easily fit inside the switch. Lengthen the "stick" so it can wrap over the edge of the "pear." Cut the shape out of the fusing and conductive fabric and fuse one side of the conductive fabric.
Remove the backing from the fusing material and fuse it to the top of the fabric that will be on the bottom and the bottom of the fabric that will be on the top. Wrap the extra bit around the top.
Head on over to your sewing machine and put batting with holes between the top and bottom fabric. Sew outside the conductive fabric and skip over the "stick" part of the switch. I found that it's possible to sew the top conductive fabric to the bottom creating a short. It's better not to sew through the conductive fabric. Attach snaps and the switch is done. I found it easier to use the male snap for all the bottom/GND connections and the female snap for all the tops. This makes all the switches interchangeable.
The circuit:
The thing about cutting rounds is that you have a lot of extra bits. I took my scraps, fused big pieces of fusing to big pieces of conductive fabric and used those to cut out the smaller rectangles I used as pads. Roughly lay out your switchesand fuse the pads to the base with enough room to sew a line to them and have a snap. The foot of the sewing machine I used didn't take kindly to being real close to the snap, so keep that in mind and give yourself some space. Since I got conductive thread that could go in my sewing machine I just sewed a line from pad to pad and back. I had to go slow or the thread would break, but it was a ton faster than hand sewing. Also with conductive thread on the bobbin and needle, I got a really good solid connection. The stuff frays like crazy, but a little craft glue or Elmers clears that right up. Try to keep the lines well away from each other and you shouldn't have any issues.
Final assembly:
Snap on all your switches, connect the board, load code and you're done. I used wire to get from the board to the pad and then just sewed the wire to the base by hand. For the next version, I will mount the board in a plastic box with snaps to attach it to the base so that idle fingers do not pull it apart.
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