Electroluminescent Light Suit
Intro: Electroluminescent Light Suit
This was a very extensive light suit made solely out of el wire. The total costs was around 400$ for everything, the wire, inverters, wetsuit, and other misc things to make it work. I made the suit for a fashion show at my school and unfortunately didn't win anything but still had a lot of fun making it and performing in front of hundreds of people. After the show lots of people wanted a picture of me in the suit, I was a celebrity for a couple hours that night.
STEP 1: Step 1: Begining to Layout Design
First off before you begin laying out a design for a suit, you need too purchase the items needed to run the lights. I bought 4 inverters with each attached to a battery pack and an on off switch. Before sewing on lights you need to figure out a base point to where everything runs from. I decided to attach everything to the underside of my arm. From there when you have all the wires working properly you can start sewing on the lights. I then started to sew the lights on with fishing line to secure the el wire on the suit. To sew the lights I went with a very simple technique. By just looping over the lights over and over again with fishing line and a sewing needle until the whole set over secured down. Average set takes about 6 hours of sewing.
STEP 2: Step 2: Half the Suit Done
Here is a picture of half of my suit finished. It has two different colors attached to it and about 100 ft of wired sewn on. I'm about 30 hours into sewing here and still have another whole half to go. For the other half its basically the same thing when putting on the inverters and the lights.
STEP 3: Final Design
Final suit design. Looks excellent in the dark and very pleased with the final outcome. Over 200 ft of lights, 40 AA batteries, 4 inverters, and countless hours of work later and the suit is completed. Time to go to the show and showcase it to hundreds. :)
5 Comments
CubeKnight 8 years ago
How did you keep it from scrunching up?
ashleyjlong 9 years ago
Cool final result! Did you tack the wire in place and then take the suit off to do the sewing, or have someone help you stitch while the suit was on? I helped my DJ friend make a Tron bodysuit and between the wiggly wire and wiggly spandex it was tough!
Danger is my middle name 9 years ago
This is awesome, make sure you enter the Halloween contest this fall!
MikeR3 9 years ago
That didn't win anything?!
What's WRONG with those people? :-)
Excellent work!
I wish el-wire was DC. LED strips aren't as nice and solid. But on the near horizon, I've seen LED "Filaments". They're not as bendable as el-wire, but hey, it's gotta start somewhere.
eberlen123 9 years ago
Thanks man! And I know but its ok. Turns out the Swedish Art Institute wants to showcase my suit with some others in an exhibit over the summer in Minneapolis. So that feels like a win to me!