Cut your fabric to a flat flower shape, four petaled flowers work quite nicely. The flowers in the photos are made from felt. Start by folding the flower in half and sewing down the fold. I start sewing from where the flower petals split a little to give the flowers more dimensionality, if you want yours to lay flatter/the petals to be floppier just start at the body of the flower.
After you've done that, open the flower back up again and fold it the opposite way. Sew that side as well:
Now your flower should be dimensional like these ones:
Repeat if you have multiple flowers. Now you can install your LEDs. Look at the LEDs- for this type of LED, the long leg is positive and the short side is negative. If you want to test this out just hold your LED onto the coin cell battery you have, matching the long leg to the side with the +. It should light up. (If it doesn't try and find another battery to test your LED with, the battery might be dead or just not have enough voltage for your LED. A 3v battery should be enough for the LED. LEDs should come in packages with the required voltage written on the side.) If you are installing multiple LEDs, you may want to mark the positive leg with a permanent marker so you don't have to test them all once they're in the flower.
The wire that makes up the LED legs is not that strong, it often cannot go through the fabric without bending and becoming contorted. I pre-poked holes with my sewing needle because it was somewhat thick, you could also use a pushpin. If the LED legs do bend you can just straighten them, but if they come under too much stress they can break off at the bulb. If you are adding multiple layers of fabric on your flower, just hold them together as you poke the LEDs through. The LEDs will hold them together when they are done.
Insert the coin cell batteries, making sure the positive side touches the positive lead (leg) on the LED. Pinch the LED onto the battery, making sure the ends of the leads are not touching because that will cross the current, causing a short circuit, and they will not light up.
When your LEDs are light up, tape the battery on. Electrical and duct tape work best. These flowers do not have a switch, the only way to "turn them off" is to remove the battery. (Flower tutorial with a switch coming soon.)
Now either cut off the excess on the lead or bend them over so they cannot touch each other like so:
Now you can cover your flower with ribbon, if you want. I hot glue the ribbon on. Don't melt through the tape or you'll likely have to tape them over again.
If you are attaching them to something else, like a hat, bag, shirt, etc. Just add this fabric into the equation when you are poking through the LEDs. If they're hidden you don't have to cover them with ribbon, and that will make it easier to change out the batteries. You can glue or sew them onto the hat, bag, etc. if you want too to make them more permanent.
Here's a glowing flower hat I wore at Maker Faire KC:
Good luck, have fun!
Check for more tutorials soon.
PDF version here:
(The first page is blank. So sorry, I'm fixing it now.)
