electrojute bag

On a recent visit to Muji, in search of something I didn’t end up purchasing but found something else instead lol, I came across a small cute tote bag. You might see these in all or at least most Muji shops, by the counter or scattered around. Instantly I came up with an idea. What if I hack this and add some electrocute features? You might ask what are those electrocute features. Well meet Electrojute, my very first e•textile project - a jute tote bag, with felt flowers and Sakura lilac LEDs. 

✿ Materials used:

- A tote bag of your choice, I chose Muji’s eco-friendly tote bag made from uncolored jute material due to its minimal look and strong feel.

Sakura Lilac Sewable LEDs, the conductive thread and components were all from Kitronik, under their “Electro Fashion” line. (They also have discovery and miniature kits to get you started on E-Textiles!)

✿ Plan of execution:

Initially, I intended to use lavender felt for the flowers but it was impossible for me to find for some reason. I almost came close when ordering it online but the purple was not the shade I preferred. Luckily for me, even though I love and cheer on for pastels, black is actually my default so that’s what ended up going with! 

✿ Circuit diagram: 

In this diagram, you can see that the conductive thread on one side is used to connect the positive connection on the battery holder, to the positive side on each LED used. The other side of thread is used to connect the negative connection on the battery holder, to the negative side on each LED used. Conductive Thread is a specialty thread made with stainless steel fibers. Since I’m making a circuit, it’s essential to connect negative to negative and positive to positive. And the positive and negative pieces of thread must not touch each other. 

This circuit is placed inside the front part of the bag. After cutting out a piece of felt into a flower shapes of two, I made it so that the connection of the LED can be visible through a peek hole in each flower.

✿ Current progress:

It is not perfect, it is also not 100% complete, there’s still room for improvement. There was A LOT of trial and error but I’m happy with the result! I’m looking forward to continue improving this first version and maybe adding on some programmable features in the future. For now this will be a potential summer night bag. 🌸 ⚡️