I was told by a member of alt.sewing to ask a question in here about making a shirt. : )
I want to make a shirt with an image on it, either by embroidery or some other kind of high quality image transfer. I will be embedding about 27 LEDs into the shirt. The LEDs will be supported by a flex circuit. I was figuring that in order to make the holes for the LEDs high quality they would need a button hole type reinforcement.
I was hoping to make contact with Steve and see how much this project would cost. Single unit to prototype with the potential for more units. I live in Anchorage, which is why I was directed to Steve. ; )
The shirt would be a LED only version of this computer:
We've just had an amusing thread about installing LEDs in a quilted wallhanging. Quilting is probably too much for a shirt, but would do well for a vest. For a shirt, either applique for the large color blocks plus embroidery for the details, or embroidery alone. Both with some kind of stabilizer, and it should be sturdy enough to hold sparkly lights. Where do you plan to put the battery pack? Do the lights need to be removable for washing? (In which case, buttonholes are a good idea.) Roberta in D
"Grant Stockly" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@o80g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
The proposed shirt sounds mighty uncomfortable to me, Grant, but I suppose that if you're in Alaska, you could wear enough shirts under it. Back in my Mardi Gras costume-making days, I think I would have approached such a project with eyelets (assuming the LEDs don't really require much in the way of openings for wires). Lots of sewing machines can do an embroidered eyelet. You also would want to think about a fusible interfacing to support the weight. Sounds like a fun project. Good luck with it. Polly
Interesting idea! I can't help with suggestions, but would love to see the finished product. Any chance you can get Steve to post a photo when you are done?
Make it washable. Having a totally cool shirt that you can only wear for so long because it is not on the best of terms with cleaning products is not good. They lie about the lcd shirts being washable. Sometimes you an wash them several times, sometimes they die after one wash. If you are worrying about the quality of the holes for the leds, I assume you mean for it to be worn more than once.
Wow! I have (actually dear husband has) one of those things (only not a repro) in the basement somewhere. Probably hiding in a box with the timex, the atari, the vic and the bits from the western union teletype.
Yes. I am trying to get a flexible circuit board made which would hold all of the LEDs for easy removal/installation.
As far as quality of a finished product goes, I'm reminded of the saying "Why do it twice when you can do it once". ; )
The circuit and shirt combination will probably cost quite a bit (cost a lot to me, I wear t-shirts all the time! ; ) ). Any vintage computer collector who has the shirt will cherish it, and probably want to wear it often. : )
They are worth holding on to! On a rainy day you should try to get it working. I would be willing to help if you if needed.
For sure! I will have a website set up for it when its complete.
I've produced 3 vintage computer kits so far by investing a significant amount in NRE. By selling around 20 of each I'm able to recover the investments and end up with my own model of that vintage computer. I plan to do the same thing with the shirt. I'm sure I can sell at least 10-20, which might be required with minimum volume for a prototype order of the flexible circuit board. I have a hard time describing how flexible they are. They're about as thick as a few sheets of paper and also about as flexible. VERY expensive to manufacture though!
Every time I get to the end of a 5 month long "hobby" project, I promise to myself never to start another one again. But shortly after I'm finished, I get bored and somehow forget all about that promise. ; )
Like Polly wrote, most sewing machines can stitch an eyelet so you can have a nice finished hole for your LEDs. If you do not wish to sew, you might want to check out metal eyelets too. They are small versions of grommets and can be found in most sewing stores. They would have to be hammered on the cloth, but I'm sure that is no problem for a guy. You would need to add a second layer of fabric to the inside of the shirt wherever you wanted a metal eyelet, to stabilize the fabric and give the eyelet a little more to hang onto. The metal eyelets also come in silver which you might want if you plan on making the little toggle switches too. You will need to know the outer dimension of the LED lights and toggles so that you can get the correct size inner dimension on the eyelets.
The battery pack for the LEDs can easily be placed in a small bag attached to the inside of the shirt.
Just don't wear it to an airport. Most folks have no idea what an Altair was, so who knows what they would think of a whole blinking, flashing Altair shirt.
Recently a college student was arrested for terrorism in an airport for wearing a necklace of a painted black and white "circuit board" with flashing LED lights. She had made the necklace to wear to a college technical competition earlier that day. Workers at the ticket counter of the airport noticed her flashing lights and thought the circuit board was real so they told police that the woman had a bomb on her chest. The woman was arrested. After the necklace was inspected the woman was released and the charges dropped. Debra in VA See my quilts at
Because its the Altair! : ) I love that thing... I can't come up with a good reason for you, but what would it be if it weren't an Altair? I like the Altair more than the IMSAI...
Its hard enough for vintage computer guys to cross the border. They guards don't recognize any of that junk as a "computer". Where is the keyboard, mouse, or monitor?
For a one off I would suggest hard wiring and then casting the leads in latex or silicone. A production run is way beyond me.
sellah sellah amen
It has come close to going to parts a couple of times. He just can't bring himself to disassemble his first computer though. Everytime he thinks about it a little Johnny5 voice in his head goes "No disassemble!" Funny because some of his reletives chipped in together to get it for him for Christmas the year it came out. They thought of it as a rather expensive joke. He had it up and running and was learning to program it by the end of January.
Haha. I surely hadn't thought about crossing a border with such an item! I can only imagine the border guard's confusion that would be caused by an original Apple I, wood and all, crossing the border today. At least you could pass off a VIC20 as a thick clunky vintage keyboard and an old cassette player. Hahaha.
I'm geeky enough to know the Apple I had wood, what an Altair was, and actually have owned a VIC20, but I didn't recognize the name IMSAI until I did a web search and realized I had seen several way back when. A VIC20 is worth 0, so I take it that there are collectors of the old build-it-yourself computers? Debra in VA See my quilts at
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