Halloween is also known as the night of the ghosts – and so that our costume fits the theme perfectly, let’s make a quick and easy Halloween ghost shirt. As makers, of course, we value one thing: That it shines!
So that our mind has a particularly good effect in the dark, we illuminate its silhouette with light wire. So little candy hunters can haunt the streets clearly visible in the pitch dark night. In addition to continuous light, we can also switch to slow or fast flashing at the touch of a button. We can clip the battery holder to the neckline of the shirt or put it in our trouser pocket.
If you prefer to make a suitable headgear for Halloween, you can recreate our luminous witch hat. Here, too, a light wire provides the right illumination for the trip on the broom into the magical night.
Materials
To frame the silhouette for the Halloween disguise, we have filament wires from the Geolino Halloween light set “Masks and disguise” used. This set includes a blue and a red light wire, each two meters long, a battery holder and a sewing kit. You can of course use any other EL wire kit – this is just made particularly child-friendly. EL luminous wires are available in other colors and lengths from suppliers such as Conrad.
How the filament shines
The cables work with the electroluminescent effect. Electroluminescence results from the direct excitation of fluorescent luminous pigments in an alternating electrical field. EL cables can be glued, stapled or sewn to any surface.
There is more on the subject in issue 4/15 of Make.
The set includes a battery holder for two Mignon batteries with each cord, which contains the appropriate control electronics. The two millimeter thick light wires are operated with a sinusoidal alternating voltage in the range of approx. 100 volts, which is generated from the battery voltage by a small transformer. At 3 volts, the power consumption is around 180 milliamps. The frequency is approx. 2.5 kilohertz, so when the light is switched on, a faint squeaking can be heard.
A button can be used to switch between continuous light and slow and fast flashing. The selected setting is indicated by a red LED. The light wire is connected to the battery holder via a two-pole connector with a snap-in lug.
The set finally includes ten meters of transparent thread and three needles to sew the luminous wires onto items of clothing. A printed quick guide is also included.
