LED Dancing Dress

That's what my husband calls my latest upcycle, a dancing dress, and I think it's because I've incorporated the LED lights into it. I wore it to a friend's barbeque and I got a lot of queries along the lines of  "Why is your dress glowing?". Many had to do a double take!

I was inspired by Becky Stern's Sparkle Skirt (see video below). Her skirt had laser-cut motifs and underneath she had programmed some LEDs to sparkle away depending on how you moved. Personally, I felt the sparkle was too much for me, and I wanted to mute it with the fabric of a dress that I had. 

I didn't use Adafruit, but LilyPad Arduino together with the accelerometer and rows of LEDs. These were sewn onto an old slip, which means I can transfer it to another outfit easily! This is one way of giving an old outfit some pizazz! 

It took me one evening and night to design, sew and programme it. I had some difficulties at first as the connections were loose and that was in part due to the slip being extremely billowy.

Here it is worn under a colourful dress that I have. As you can see, the colours of the dress mutes the sparkles of the LEDs and there is a glowing effect.   What do you think?