LED Pin or Barrette

Make a simple fabric-and-LED ornament.

Tools:

• Scissors
• Needles
• Needlenose Pliers (optional)
• Needle Threader (optional)

Materials:

• Fabric
• LED
• All-Purpose Thread
• Conductive Thread
• Pinback or Barrette
• Glue (optional)
• Battery Holder

Cut or fold your fabric into the desired shape. Here, we used tulle to create a poufy flower-type shape. You could make a simple felt animal or some other shape - your choice! If necessary, secure your shape with all-purpose thread.

Attach the battery holder to your creation using all-purpose thread.

Take a look at your LED. Notice that its legs are different lengths. The longer leg is positive, the shorter negative.

You may find it helpful to bend the legs of your LED to make it fit in or on your ornament. Here, we used needlenose pliers to bend the legs into spiral shapes, leaving a little extra length in the positive leg so we could tell them apart.

This next step requires conductive thread. Here is where you might find the needle threader handy - conductive thread can be hard to manipulate, fraying easily. A needle threader is a big help.

When you have your LED placed where you like it in your ornament, you will connect the positive leg of your LED to the positive terminal of your battery holder, and the negative leg of your LED to the negative terminal of your battery holder, using the conductive thread.

Make sure you use two separate pieces of thread here - one for the positive side and one for the negative - and take care not to let the two threads touch. This will "short" the circuit and your LED will not light up.

Using glue or stitches, attach your creation to your pinback or barrette.

You're done. Good job! Wear it with pride.