Instructions:
Cut your fabric into the shape of the animal you are making. I draw out the animal on a piece of card stock and cut it out there first to make sure I like it, then trace that shape onto my fabric and cut it out from there. After that cut out a small rectangle to make a battery holder pocket. Attach the rectangular piece of fabric, on only one side, where you want the battery pocket to be. In the case of these dinosaurs- on the stomach. You can either glue or sew the rectangle down.
Take your LED and bend the leads out to the sides. Curl each of the leads around the round-nosed pliers so that they are small circles, like so:
When you're done, the LED should look like this:
Glue the plastic part of the LED down so that it stays in place while you are sewing it together. Take your conductive thread and loop it around the circles that are the LED leads. Loop the thread around the circles a few times and make sure it is tight and making solid contact or the current will not be able to pass through the conductive thread to the LED.
After you do this you can start a simple running stitch (a line of small even stitches that run back and forth through the cloth without overlapping) down the neck of the dinosaur to the battery holder pocket. Sew an "x" on hte inside of rectangular flap so that when the pocket is sewn down completely the "x" will be on the inside of the front of the pocket. Afterwards tie a knot and cut the thread.
Start another series of loops on the other side of the LED, and then make a running stitch from that wire circle (the lead on the other side of the LED). The running stitch should come down to the inside of where the pocket will be. Make an "x" at the inside of the pocket. This "x" and your other "x" should touch eachother. These will be the contact points where the conductive thread will meet the battery and carry the electrical current from the battery to the LED light. DO NOT cross the stitching or you will be crossing the current and cause a short circuit. After you get both of your lines sewn from the LEDs to the battery pocket you can test your circuit. Put the battery in between the "x"s and press it down. If it does not work, flip it around and try it that way. If the eye still does not light up check that the loops around the LED leads are making solid contact. (You can hold them down tightly to see if that makes a difference. If it does, add some more tight stitches around the LED leads.) Also check that the stitching lines do not cross. When your LED does light up you can sew/glue down the rest of the rectangle that is the battery holder, make sure it makes a tight fit around the battery.
Now that you have a dinosaur with a glowing eye you can decorate it. I used scraps from other felt projects cut into shapes and then glued onto the dinosaur. You can glue or sew the decorations down. Hot glue or fabric glue works well.
Here are dinosaurs made by kids ages 3-12:
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