Quick Tip: Make Sewable LEDs With Creative Bending

A fantastic tip appeared in my Twitter feed a few days ago. By bending the leads of LEDs, you can make easily sewable lights that actually look kind of cool on their own.

Rachel “KonichiwaKitty” was experimenting with methods for adding some blink to her projects and came up with this idea. As some followers pointed out, Becky Stern and others have done something similar in the past. I guess great minds do think alike!

The process is incredibly simple yet effective. Just put the leads in opposite directions and curl them with a pair of needle nose or round nose pliers. Becky made one side of hers square so you could easily tell the anode from the cathode, but I kind of like the look of loops on both sides like Rachel’s.

https://twitter.com/konichiwakitty/status/927184759092113408

There are more pictures of the project and process on Rachel’s Twitter. You should check them out!