Was dead set against EL wire for costumes until I saw a jacket with it sewn into the seams at a convention last Saturday

The way it outlined the panels without looking bulky or cheap honestly changed my mind, but I'm wondering how hard it is to keep the connections from breaking after a few wears - anyone got tips on that?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_bailey10d agoProlific Poster

I mean, it's actually not as bad as you'd think if you're careful about strain relief at the connection points. Most of the failures I've seen come from people soldering directly to the battery pack terminals without any kind of strain relief, so the wire flexes right at the solder joint and snaps after a few wears. A little dab of hot glue or shrink tubing right where the wire meets the connector can save you a ton of headache down the line. Also, sewing the wire into the seam allowance rather than just tacking it at a few points helps spread the movement around instead of concentrating all the stress in one spot.

the_jason10d ago

I gotta push back on the sewing the wire into the seam allowance part. I've seen that cause more problems than it solves honestly. Once you sew wire in there you can't easily replace it if something goes wrong down the line, and the thread itself can actually cut through the insulation over time from all the movement. I'd rather have the wire loosely running through a little fabric channel or something where I can just pull it out and swap it if the battery dies or a connection fails. Plus if you ever need to wash the garment that wire is stuck in there and it's a pain to fish out.