So from the previous week, I thought it would be super cute to have the envelope light up when someone places a letter in the love letter envelope and closes it. I thought it has a dual purpose – the first to surprise the love letter submitter through the light because you usually don’t expect a bag to light up, as well as to spark a warm feeling to see it light up. Additionally, it serves as a bit of a conversation starter to see someone carrying a light bad with a love letter envelope.
Here was the process! First, I spent some time figuring out how the circuitry and the sewing for the envelope would work. I was pretty new to both skills, so it took me embarrassingly long to figure out a quick process. Here are my envelope attempts, from first to last:
My first attempt, I used a sewing machine to make the envelope. I was a bit new to using the machine so unfortunately it took me a long time and the envelope was fraying at the edges.
For my second attempt, I hand sewed everything. This turned out a lot better! I also organized four LEDs within the envelope so it would shine brightly when closed. Unfortunately for me, this envelope doesn’t shine upon closure and I’m not sure why. This is why for my third attempt, I just used one LED and it worked!
Here are photos of the two pieces of cloth I sewed together:
And this attempt worked!! The light was too weak for my liking but I was glad to see it work!
The final steps were adding my crochet hearts from the Love assignment and putting it on the bag. The idea is for the envelope to remain open until someone decides to put something in and close it.
I think I’d like to keep working on this. To make it better, I would add more envelopes now that I know how to make them. I also wanted to experiment with the responsive part containing movement or sound, but I didn’t find materials that would let me do that in time. I might also add an embroidered patch that encourages people to leave me a note when I leave the bag unattended!