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I have recently ordered sparkfun conductive fabric (MedTex180), which is similar to LessEMF stretchy fabric but much thicker and stiffer.

The structure of the fabric is more like a rib than Lycra. The front side is very shiny and you can see the rib structure from the back side.

It stretches very well on once direction [...]

Here is the second version of Solar T-Shirt with components directly sewn on with conductive thread. It is also using slightly different circuit than the other solar t-shirt.

The new schematic is the following. Please not that it is using FLED (Blinking LED) instead of diode on other one. In this example I used 2N3906 as [...]

Instructables is having a soft circuit contest…

16+17th August 2010, DIS Conference, Aarhus, Denmark
9 participants, 2 days
>> Workshop Website

Use the Teensy board to fake Human Interface Device (HID) input. Human interface devices are recognized by your computer without need for drivers or custom software. They include computer mice, keyboards and joysticks. You can program the Teensy using arduino!!!

“Desoldering wick”! This is a very useful tool to desolder circuit when you make a mistake, or hacking toy circuits. I use them often but I never knew the name.. Here is the wikipedia explanation
“A solder wick, also known as a desoldering wick or desoldering braid, is a roll of fine, braided 18 to 42 [...]

Location:
Himbeer Atelier, Linz, Austria
Date:
Aug 13th, 14th (13-17h)
Aug 20th, 21st (13-17h)
Aug 27th(13-17h)

In this series of workshops, you will be introduced to conductive textile materials and ways to use them. There will be a small introduction to microcontroller programming [...]

By using high-resistance conductive thread instead of conductive fabric, you can make a slider (potentiometer) with zippers. Unlike zipper switch, this sensor gives analog values instead of “ON/OFF”.

A Zipper is a great clothing material that can be converted into sensors. Zipper switch is a known technique used in many projects like TV-B-Gone-Hoodie by Becky Stern. It is also introduced in “Fashioning Technology” book by Syuzi Pakhchyan.

Conductive and non-conductive play-doh recipes by Dr. AnnMarie Thomas and Samuel Johnson.

Tips on how to improve your electrical contacts between various materials. It is always good practice to test a certain connecting technique before applying it to more than one connection.

This “paper” yarn from Habu is made from 100% linen! It is amazingly strong and soft to work with and looks beautiful.

Use Vaseline as a resist and a bath of salt and vinegar to etch away the copper from copper fabric to make circuits and sensors.

Using the Sparkfun uLog module to log three channels of data and then read it out and graph it in Processing.

This example shows how to construct a “textile” flexible tilt sensor from extremely cheap and available materials. Substituting conductive fabric and a metal bead for aluminum foil.

Aluminum foil used with fusible interfacing is a great inexpensive and super available substitute for conductive fabrics.

Plug and Wear now sell “Nm10/3 conductive yarn, 80% polyester 20% stainless steel, light gray, 1 Kg cone, 3333 m (3646 yds). Perfect for knitted strain sensors. First delivery: September 2010.” Price: 75 Euro + shipping!!!

Location: Interface Cultures, Kunstuniversitat Linz, Austria
Time: 31th May,1st, 2nd June, 2010, 10-17h

This workshop introduces interaction and physical interface design topics through hans-on projects.

This is a combination of conductive pompom and tilt sensor. The advantage is that the pompom has much bigger and softer surface than metal bead, which helps for it to touch the tilt detecting conductive fabric. Also it gives a certain look, that may be desired for some projects.

Very convenient tools for making pompoms in all different sizes. But you can also use cardboard to make your own tool.

also see: conductive pompom, pompom tool
Make pressure sensor ball by felting a pompom composed of wool and conductive steel fibers.

Dan Riley (www.scisci.org) made a beautiful Fabric Ribbon cable. 8 separate lines of conductive threads are woven into the fabric. The end of the cable is connected to normal 16 pin plug as normal ribbon cable.

Location: LIWOLI 10, Kunstuniversitat Linz, Austria
Time: 15th April, 2010, 11-17h

Dino-Lite digital USB microscope AM-311S
Handheld Microscope
0.3M / Resolution 640×480
USB 2.0 Output
0X~50x, 200x Magnification
Built-in 8 white LED’s
185$

Use of a circular knitting machine to knit a circular stretch sensor from combinations of conductive and non-conductive yarns.

This sample came from The Swedish School of Textile. It shrinks when heat is applied and it is not reversible. When knitted together with heat emitting thread, you can control the shape (shrink) of the textile dynamically. Only downside is that it is not reversible.

also see: crochet tilt potentiometer, fabric potentiometer, time sensing bracelet,
Made using the zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine to sew/embroider a conductive and a resistive trace side by side. Then any conductive object can be used to bridge the contact between the traces and measure the position/distance from measuring point through the change in [...]

March 25 2010, SIDeR, UID, Umea, Sweden
10 participants, 3 hours
Participants will be able to make their own fabric sensors and then connect it to a multimeter, LED or an arduino+Processing to visualize the sensor data.

Location: The Swedish School of Textile
Date: March 22-26th 2010
In this five days workshop, we aim to experiment with the mapping of the body movements and technological audio/visual feedbacks.
The workshop start with introduction to arduino, and basic electronics circuit knowledge. We will also explore with Farmata library for Arduino to exchange data with software on your [...]