Playawear Work In Progress 2014

[Gazmatron]

That's pretty clever! Are those flat lithium cells? I stuck a bunch of LEDs in the bottom of some platform boots last year and the abuse from walking around on them broke all the wiring connections by the end of the week (even though they were fully encased in shoe-goop). Hope that stays working for you, and we that both steer clear of the lithium horror stories I hear.

Yep, they're lipos. I was initially concerned about (and prepared for) the cells being damaged, but the boots stayed rigid enough for it not to be a problem. They had a lot of wear on the Playa last year were fine. I did have a small issue with one of the packs expanding a bit. This year I'm going to take one cell out of each 'boot pack' to reduce weight and add some wiggle room.

You're right, lipo's need to be treated with respect to avoid horror stories... especially when charging in the heat of the day. Like anything though, it's safe if you do it right

Great coat pics by the way!

[FossaFerox]

Learned how to machine sew so I could make my own vest this year (and do it right do it doesn't fall apart). Almost done!

[trilobyte]

I'm finally getting a chance to share a few pics of a recent project my gf has been tinkering with. Taking the Eridu Society 'cog-wing' insignia and adapting it to work as decor on a top-hat. After adapting the art to fit the curve of her hat and accommodating the electronics, she 3D printed it using a glow in the dark material. The LED's in the electronics don't emit any UV light (they're just RGB), but the printed piece picks up a decent glow from either daylight or UV in the area - it's a cool effect (as I hope you can tell from the pics below). One of our campmates is highly skilled in the ways of the arduino, and wrote her a custom program that's got a nice, somewhat organic and rhythmic pattern. Here are the pics...

[AfricanFire]

Made a couple of tube tops (took me about 1 hour)




Made a couple of shiny skirts (took me about 2 hours):

[McStrangle]

I cant sew to save my life, but Ive been tarting up some old jeans





And an old vest

[BoyScoutGirl]

Very cool, both of you! I think you should swap - that vest with that shiny skirt, for example

[smilemore]

Love those jeans! Very cool.

[melodiousdirge]

Really dig those jeans - what a great idear!

I finished sewing the velcro into the liner of my playa coat to hold the lights. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to hold the hook side of the velcro to the light strips, but I have some ideas in the works:



The coat itself is about 90% finished:

[Loren Ipsvm]

Very cool to see everyone's projects here. For people working with EL wire- will hot glue hold it to plastic? I am 3d printing some parts out of PLA and the EL wire snaps into place pretty well- I was wondering if I could secure the ends of the wire with hot glue to keep it from popping off.

Anyone have experience with gluing EL wire?

[melodiousdirge]

Very cool to see everyone's projects here. For people working with EL wire- will hot glue hold it to plastic? I am 3d printing some parts out of PLA and the EL wire snaps into place pretty well- I was wondering if I could secure the ends of the wire with hot glue to keep it from popping off.

Anyone have experience with gluing EL wire?

If you embed the EL wire in a blob of hot glue it will stick for sure, so I mean having hot glue blob big enough that when you stick the EL wire in it, the blob closes back over the top of the wire. This means even if the hot glue stops sticking to the EL wire, it still won't go anywhere. As to whether the hot glue will stick to your substrate, you'll have to experiment. One thing for sure though is that hot glue sticks much, much better if you have a good hot glue gun so the glue is nice and skin-destroying hot when it comes out. Good luck and be careful!

[Loren Ipsvm]

@melodiousdirge

Thank you for the reply and advice- I will seek out a good gun and post my results here!

[Loren Ipsvm]

Here is a test with EL wire and a 3D printed substrate- going to try sewing it on to something to see if it is flexible enough

[smiffman]

McStrangle your jeans are sickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

[trilobyte]

Loren, it's probably too late for this year's projects, but in future you can look for something called "tail wire" - that particular EL wire has a thin plastic tail on the casing. Since the tail is just plastic, you can sew right through it to attach to fabric. Here's a close-up shot of the stuff....



Great work on the pants, McStrangle!

I just picked up a couple strings of angel tears from Benny's place. Super thin wire, super tiny LED's spaced every 4 inches apart. I'm going to work them into tophats to help with my night-time visibility to others.

[BoyScoutGirl]

... "tail wire" ...

I've never heard of this! From my research I'd concluded that sewing EL wire was probably too much of a pain to be worthwhile to me, but now I actually might try my hand at it. For next year, of course.

[Loren Ipsvm]

Looks like the hot glue will work- I also 3d printed clips that will be glued on as backup too.

Awesome tip on the tail wire - I'll try that next year
Here is a pic of the t-shirt:

[thirt33n]

...don't usually bring any "costumes". Usually wear the same thing all days and another thing all nights but,....a little cardboard, and duct tape turns me into a temporary star spangled superhero villain.

[BoyScoutGirl]

....a little cardboard, and duct tape turns me into a temporary star spangled superhero villain....

All superheroes and villains are asked to kindly report to the Lamplighters' lounge at 5:00 on the circle around Center Camp on Thursday from 10pm until late for the superhero party. Hope to see you there - those stars will move you to the front of the line!

[thirt33n]

^ oh, a party? ...i guess that sounds ok.....



I will plan to attend!! Thanks for the invite.

[Savannah]

That coat is beeeeeeeeeeautiful.

...don't usually bring any "costumes". Usually wear the same thing all days and another thing all nights but,....a little cardboard, and duct tape turns me into a temporary star spangled superhero villain.

This, too.

[ShreddinPB]

Nice work! What are you powering with that bad boy?
What is the readout? V or Ah remaining?

Thanks! The readout is voltage right now (10.8-16.4 volts). It's just a rough indication of remaining life - I'll have to print a little label out that cross references remaining life with the readout... I'm too lazy/don't have time to rig the display up to directly read % life. The output will always be 12.0V thanks to a little boost/buck power supply in the control box, so I can power voltage sensitive things with it as well. The intent was to power any and all light up goodness with the belt, but I have yet to finish any of the light up goodness projects! I think the main current draw is going to be about 300 watts worth of RGB LED strips sewn into my coat (which I have not yet started, eek!).

Very nice.. my coat project is getting hosed right now, work decided to send me to austin M-W next week lol
so much for putting the lights in it

[tatonka]

took this leather coat I got from goodwill for 14.99 and Im in process turning it into o Band coat w/western style.
Used shami cloth for the cuffs and tail. Havnt sewn tail on yet. Its color did not match coat so I had to dye it in a pot of coffee.
Once it dries Ill attach it

[BoyScoutGirl]

Tatonka, that looks great! I like dying with coffee idea - cheap and it smells nice.

[AfricanFire]

Tea is a great dye too

[sadie]

Tatonka! That's so cool.

[tatonka]

Thanks BoyScoutGirl and sadie

[atomosk]

If anyone is looking for authentic Central Asian clothing, there's a store in Virginia City called Kashmiri American Enterprises that sells traditional clothing imported from Kashmir. Really nomadic looking stuff. It's worth checking out weather you live in the area or are just passing through Reno on the way to the playa. If you're into the whole supporting small, local businesses thing.

[melodiousdirge]

Haha, it works haha!

[melodiousdirge]

Oh I also finished the mini makeover on my infamous boots.

[spacetime]

Spent the weekend at home in Portland and got to work with my mom on playa wear.

This is my first year but we are have worked together on costumes a lot in the past so we had a shot at making some stuff that might be fun out there.

In total we did

- fuzzy boot covers (sorta masculine? Maybe if they don't work I can gift em)
- Some embellishment to a grey vest I got from the bins
- A tu-tu! (Yay!)
- a loin cloth. I'm not sure why but I thought this might come in handy!

And the centerpiece:
- a digital Aztec hooded cloak with some cool bead work.

Here's the cloak: