Wear your heart on your sleeves? No! Wear it on your chest! Simple and quick; a great first wearable project! This shirt you can wash and wear everyday. Here, we explore the concept of making wearables more comfortable with the use of sculpty.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Things You'll Need

Tee shirt or t-shirt fabric
18 LEDs
18 Resistors corresponding to the LED choice
Battery holder (I used a Lilypad one with a switch)
Sculptey, or other oven bake clay found at your local craft store.
Hot Glue
Solder

Tools You'll Need

Hot Glue Gun
Soldering iron
Laser Cutter
Fabric Scissors
Sewing Machine (if you're making your own tee shirt)
Oven

Step 2: Fire the Lazoorr!

Laser cut the led holes out of fabric (or a teeshirt) of your choice. The file is below If you are laser cutting a shirt you have, put board between it, then play with the settings on the laser cutter so it cuts the depth of your shirt. This way, you only cut one side!

Step 3: Build the Circuit and Cover in Sculptey and Bake

Very simple circuit, only difference is that it's heart shaped. I would set the LEDs in the holes cut by the laser, and solder those. Be sure to but the battery holder in the center to make your life easier later!

Cover the circuit in sculptey, covering all the pokey bits, then follow the instructions on the package, and bake it. The circuit will be fine, as long as your oven isn't as hot as your solder melt point.

I ended up cracking mine, when I took it out of the oven (...it may or may not have been dropped...) So that's why there is hot glue in a seam.

Step 4: Insert Into Shirt

Make the shirt (If you're making your own shirt)

Sew the shirt together after laser cutting, but before putting the heart in. I made a very simple short sleeve teeshirt which you can make by tracing a teeshirt you own out of fabric, then sewing up the sides and shoulder.

Circuit integration

Put small dots of hot glue on the front side of the circuit, and press into the inside off the shirt. Then, cut a piece of fabric similar to the shape of the circuit, and cut holes over the battery and switch, and hot glue over. And you're done!