Sew on Components

• Cut a piece of felt to the size you want for your badge. Decide where you are going to put the LED and mark the spot on the felt. Now decide where to put your battery holder. It could be on the back! Mark the spot for one of the positive holes and one of the negative holes with a + and –.

• If you are using a regular LED, you will need to bend the pins into loops. Pliers can be helpful here. If you have a sewable LED, skip this step!

• Thread your needle! Take a piece of conductive thread about 30cm long, and pull one end of it through the hole in the needle (called the eye). This can be pretty fiddly. If the thread is frayed at the end, cut off the frayed bits with a scissors.

• Once the needle is threaded, the thread will be hanging out in two pieces. Pull one of them so it is a good bit longer than the other and tie a knot in the very end of the long piece.

Ready to start sewing?

• Place your LED onto the felt at the spot you have marked out for it. With one hand, hold onto the felt and the LED. With the other hand, place the tip of the needle behind the felt and push it through so that it comes out through the – hole of the LED.

• Pull the needle and thread all the way through at the front. Try holding the needle by the eye and pinching the thread tightly there to keep it from falling out of the needle while you pull (if it does fall out, it’s ok, you can re-thread it). You want to keep pulling until only the knot remains at the back.

• Now, place the tip of the needle right beside the – hole of the LED (the one it just came through), but not inside it. Like this:

• Push the needle through the felt so it comes out the back. Grab the needle behind the felt and pull it all the way through, just like you did at the front. You’ve just sewn your first stitch! It should look something like this:

• Repeat the last two steps three more times. Be sure to pull the thread tight each time. This will create a good connection and keep the LED secured tightly to the felt.

• You have just learned how to attach wearable components. Almost there!