Mod Your PPE With LEDs - Make An Electro Fashion Face Mask

2021-10-12 | By Kitronik Maker

License: See Original Project

Courtesy of Kitronik

Guide by Kitronik Maker

Emma makes the mundane more exciting with a simple Electro Fashion face mask mod. Spice up your PPE with LEDs! While it may make the mask slightly less effective, it will definitely make it more interesting to use where safety isn't a concern. There are only a few components needed, a full list can be found below.

We Used:

A Mask as a base
More fabric in your choice of colour
Needles
1 x 2m Conductive Thread
2 x Coin Cell Holder
1 x Pack of 5 CR2032 3V Coin Cells
1 x Electro-Fashion Slide Switch
8 x Red Sewable LEDs (You can use any colour you like!)

Make an Electro Fashion Mask:

This activity is suitable for a wide age range, though younger children will need quite a bit of help. Now we know what we need, let's bust out the needles and get to work!

Step 1: Preparing the Mask

Trace half of the shape of your mask, then sew the two halves together to create a copy of the shape of the mask. Do this twice, to make a layer to sew your circuit into and a layer to go over the circuit to conceal it and diffuse the light. We didn’t, and after sewing our circuit we realised we couldn’t remove it easily to wash the mask.

Step 2: Sewing the Circuit:

sew_1

Sew your circuit on one of the separate pieces! See above for how we laid out our circuit on our mask. When you’re sewing using conductive thread, make several loops around the connection on the boards at either end of a strand of thread. This ensures the connection is strong.

Then hem the mask copies to make sure they don’t fray!

Step 3: Joining the Mask & The Circuit Piece:

mask_2

Sew the circuit piece to the mask, then the other separate piece over the top to diffuse the light and conceal the circuit. You’ll want to leave space to reach the battery holders and switch.

Then you're done!

complete_3