And now on to a completely different kind of Fedora
2010-Jun-26, Saturday 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chebeI bought a fedora-like hat years ago, back when women wearing suits and hats on nights-out was fashionable. But it sits a bit awkwardly on me, requiring me to wear my hair up/tight, and the front brim almost completely covers my eyes. Gives the hat lots of attitude, but it also covers up my two favourite features for dressing up, leaving me feeling a bit drab. I thought to myself, if I'm going to cover up my hair and my eyes it needs to be with something with a lot of bedazzle, something that grabs your focus. A black fedora-like hat doesn't quite cut it. What it needs is, well, obviously, LEDs.
I have a saying, that's quickly becoming my mantra; you can wear lights, without being gaudy. For this hat project I figured a simple string of lights, along the hat band, that are just either on, or off. Subtle. (-ish.)
But, making all those surface mount LED beads, and hand sewing it all into the hat band, that would be quite a bit of work. And it isn't really necessary, I don't need them to be individually addressable, I just want them all to go on at the same time. So I looked around and found LED-tape. Pre-soldered strips of LEDs, mounted on sticky tape. The tape works in 5cm pieces, that can be soldered together when you want more, or cut when you want less. All you do is add the battery connector and you're sorted.
The first I found in Maplins, at UK£1.59 per 5cm. They charge more here. But that's UK£31.80 per metre.
The second place I found is DealExtreme, only sold in metre lengths, for US$18.06. And when it showed up they had a barrel connector for mains usage (to fit this battery connector) already soldered on.
(Tape on top from DealExtreme, tape on bottom from Maplins. Click for larger.)
The main difference is that DealExtreme uses larger, bulkier (which implies cheaper) LEDs. But, you know, I think for most applications I can cope with the extra bulk. Both handle 12V, but work just fine with 9V.
I want to use the LED-tape with batteries, so I cut the barrel connector off (woohoo, free connector!) and replace with a 9V battery snap available anywhere they sell electronic components. I reinforce the joints with electrical tape. And cut the LED-tape to the length of the hat-band.
The existing hat-band is glued on to the hat, so I'm going to leave it where it is. And make my LED-hat-band removable. I get a piece of thick material I have laying around (in this case twill), cut to the length of hat-band plus an inch or two, and sew it in half along the long edge because it's too wide.
Then I take the LED-tape and slowly stick the tape to the backing/stiff material, bit by bit, as the backing-tape is peeled away from the glue.
Stitch the two ends of the backing/stiff material together. Place on hat.
I wanted a simpler, cleaner look, so I made an outer hat-band from a wider, more decorative ribbon, to be placed on top of the LED-band.
Then all that's left is the battery. Batteries are quickly becoming the bane of my life. I don't want to make a small hole in the hat and hide the battery inside, because I want the strip to be removable. And, insides of hats get hot and sweaty, that simply can't be good for batteries. So instead I want to hide it on the outside. The brim at the back of my hat is angled just so that it gives a snug fit for a 9V battery. Cover the battery in black tape/material for camouflage, and cosy inside some wide elastic so that the snap is held firmly in place. And just don't make any violent head gestures. (I'm working on a more sturdy/professional finish, but for now this works surprisingly well.)
And it's done! Now I can shine with class.
I have a saying, that's quickly becoming my mantra; you can wear lights, without being gaudy. For this hat project I figured a simple string of lights, along the hat band, that are just either on, or off. Subtle. (-ish.)
But, making all those surface mount LED beads, and hand sewing it all into the hat band, that would be quite a bit of work. And it isn't really necessary, I don't need them to be individually addressable, I just want them all to go on at the same time. So I looked around and found LED-tape. Pre-soldered strips of LEDs, mounted on sticky tape. The tape works in 5cm pieces, that can be soldered together when you want more, or cut when you want less. All you do is add the battery connector and you're sorted.
The first I found in Maplins, at UK£1.59 per 5cm. They charge more here. But that's UK£31.80 per metre.
The second place I found is DealExtreme, only sold in metre lengths, for US$18.06. And when it showed up they had a barrel connector for mains usage (to fit this battery connector) already soldered on.
(Tape on top from DealExtreme, tape on bottom from Maplins. Click for larger.)
The main difference is that DealExtreme uses larger, bulkier (which implies cheaper) LEDs. But, you know, I think for most applications I can cope with the extra bulk. Both handle 12V, but work just fine with 9V.
I want to use the LED-tape with batteries, so I cut the barrel connector off (woohoo, free connector!) and replace with a 9V battery snap available anywhere they sell electronic components. I reinforce the joints with electrical tape. And cut the LED-tape to the length of the hat-band.
The existing hat-band is glued on to the hat, so I'm going to leave it where it is. And make my LED-hat-band removable. I get a piece of thick material I have laying around (in this case twill), cut to the length of hat-band plus an inch or two, and sew it in half along the long edge because it's too wide.
Then I take the LED-tape and slowly stick the tape to the backing/stiff material, bit by bit, as the backing-tape is peeled away from the glue.
Stitch the two ends of the backing/stiff material together. Place on hat.
I wanted a simpler, cleaner look, so I made an outer hat-band from a wider, more decorative ribbon, to be placed on top of the LED-band.
Then all that's left is the battery. Batteries are quickly becoming the bane of my life. I don't want to make a small hole in the hat and hide the battery inside, because I want the strip to be removable. And, insides of hats get hot and sweaty, that simply can't be good for batteries. So instead I want to hide it on the outside. The brim at the back of my hat is angled just so that it gives a snug fit for a 9V battery. Cover the battery in black tape/material for camouflage, and cosy inside some wide elastic so that the snap is held firmly in place. And just don't make any violent head gestures. (I'm working on a more sturdy/professional finish, but for now this works surprisingly well.)
And it's done! Now I can shine with class.
