Wearables / Materials

After months of searching, we finally have what we consider to be the ultimate conductive thread. It's thin, strong, smooth, and made completely of 316L stainless steel. Once you start working with this thread you'll quickly agree its optimal for any wearables work! This thread is 3 ply, thicker than every day polyester or cotton thread but still thin enough to be sewn by hand in medium-eye needles. This may be sew-able by a sewing...

After months of searching, we finally have what we consider to be the ultimate conductive thread. It's thin, strong, smooth, and made completely of 316L stainless steel. Once you start working with this thread you'll quickly agree its optimal for any wearables work! This thread is 2 ply, a little thicker than every day polyester or cotton thread but still thin enough to be sewn by hand in medium-eye needles or with a sewing machine that...

Measuring stretch forces isn't easy - unless you have some conductive rubber cord! This cord is 2mm diameter, and 1 meter long, made of carbon-black impregnated rubber. Usually this material is used for EMF gasketing, but its also very fun to play with. In a 'relaxed' state, the resistance is about 350 ohms per inch. As you pull on it, the resistance increases (the particles get further apart). As you stretch it out, the resistance...

This conductive material (also known as "Velostat" or "Linqstat") is a nice addition for your wearable/sensor hacking toolkit. It's pressure-sensitive: squeezing it will reduce the resistance, so it's handy for making flexible sensors. And it's a lot less expensive than off-the-shelf pressure or bend sensors too! Each order comes with a 11"x11" (28cm x 28cm) 4mil (0.1mm) thick piece. We may fold the...

This woven conductive fabric is silver colored and made of Copper+Nickel-plated polyester. Use small pieces for soft switches, plush keypads, capacitive touch sensors, and other textile interfaces. This highly conductive fabric has a resistance of less than 1 ohm per foot in any direction across the textile. Great for use with FLORA. Sold as a 20cm x 20cm piece (minimum dimension) Iron on medium if necessary, steam ok. Dry cleaning recommended....

This 316L stainless steel thread falls somewhere between a thick thread and a thin yarn. Most sewing machines wouldn't be happy with this thread since its thick, and it has the 'furry' soft feel of yarn which makes it poor for most e-textiles/wearables projects. However, the high conductivity and softness make it a great thread for making iPhone gloves! Sew a couple inches into the pad of your gloves to keep your hands toasty while...

When Bunnie showed up at Adafruit with the prototype for his Chibitronics Circuit Stickers we were all like "How on earth does that work?" and he was all like "Z-Axis tape - Its amazing!" And we agreed, so we decided to get some in our Materials section since its so cool. Z-axis tape is made by 3M, and is used to bond two conductive surfaces together and allow a small (we'd say keep it under 100mA) current to flow through...

Finally, the conductive material you've known you wanted but never knew you could have, its a sheet of flex PCB material! This is the stuff used to make flexible circuits, but raw and unetched. You can treat it just like 1 oz copper clad, etch it with ferric chloride (or other PCB etching systems) or cut with scissors. It may even be possible to laser or CNC engrave (we haven't tried it ourselves but we'd love to hear about it if you...

This knit conductive fabric is plated with real Silver and super luxe! Use small pieces on the tips of gloves or in any soft circuit situation where you need a bit of stretch. This highly conductive fabric has a resistance of less than 1 ohm per foot in any direction across the textile. It can be used to make soft keypads and capacitive touch sensors, as well as soft "squeeze" switches. Great for use with FLORA. Sold as a 20cm x 20cm...

Conductive hook & loop tape is just like the stuff you've seen on jackets, clothes, shoes, and bags, but is coated with silver to make it fully conductive. Originally this was designed to the manufacture of static-safe clothing, but its great for wearable applications as well. For example an on-off switch or sensor. Each order ships with three inches of BOTH halves, its easily sewn or cut. Conductive Hook & Loop Tape - 3" long...

This woven conductive ribbon is great for powering lots of LEDs in a wearable project. It's thin, strong, smooth, and made completely of 316L stainless steel. It plays nice with our stainless conductive thread and is very flexible, just like textile ribbon. The easiest way to attach this ribbon is to either slip it through a casing, or better yet, zig-zag stitch over it to tack it down. Because it is strong and flexible, its ideal for any...

This knit jersey conductive fabric is 63% cotton, 35% silver yarn and 2% spandex. Use small pieces for soft switches, plush keypads, capacitive touch sensors, and other textile interfaces. It's very soft and matte, perfect for ironing onto wearables with double sided interfacing. This conductive fabric has different resistance in each direction: 46 ohms per foot across the rows (stretchier direction) and 460 ohms per foot across the columns...

This woven conductive ribbon is great for powering lots of LEDs in a wearable project. It's thin, strong, smooth, and made completely of 316L stainless steel. It plays nice with our stainless conductive thread and is very flexible, just like textile ribbon. The easiest way to attach this ribbon is to either slip it through a casing, or better yet, zig-zag stitch over it to tack it down. Because it is strong and flexible, its ideal for any...

This conductive fiber is super interesting! It's great for felting and could also be spun into yarn if that's your thing. We tested many different fiber thicknesses for needle felting and found that this one (20um fiber thickness) is the most pleasurable to work with. Use about 0.2g of the stuff to make a felt touch button suitable for use with the MaKey MaKey or capacitive touch sensing circuit. Make felt controllers or felt buttons...

These 1mm thick double-sided foam tapes  are perfect for a variety of small projects. These adhesive rectangles provide a strong bond to most surfaces and are cleaner and easier to remove without the wait, mess, or hassle of epoxy or hot glue. We use these all the time to attach electronics to enclosures or battery packs, so you're probably familiar with them since they appear in so many of our kits. The blue plastic...

With our fun assortment of conductive materials, cosplay and wearables have never been easier to craft!  This  Conductive Nylon  tape goes great with our other interesting materials, such as copper tape, ITO glass or plastic, conductive inks, etc. We found that the metallic nylon fabric has some great improvements over plain copper tape. First of all  it doesn't crack when bent or twisted!...

Copper tape can be an interesting addition to your toolbox. The tape itself is made of thin pure copper so it's extremely flexible and can take on nearly any shape. You can solder to it, and the tape itself can carry current just like a wire. On the back is an electrically conductive adhesive. The adhesive can't carry significant current, but it is very handy for sensing applications where you don't want to solder the copper tape....

UGlu Dashes  are perfect for a variety of small projects. These adhesive squares provide a stronger bond to most surfaces and are cleaner and easier to remove without the wait, mess, or hassle. Adheres to a wide variety of surfaces, including, but not limited to carpet, canvas, fabrics, plastic, metal, glass, paper, wood, granite, tile, craft foam, ceiling tile, fiberglass, cement, ceramics, drywall, wallpaper, foam board,...

With our fun assortment of conductive materials, cosplay and wearables have never been easier to craft!  This Conductive Nylon tape goes great with our other interesting materials, such as copper tape, ITO glass or plastic, conductive inks, etc. We found that the metallic nylon fabric has some great improvements over plain copper tape. First of all it doesn't crack when bent or twisted! So you can make all sorts of odd shapes and...

With our fun assortment of conductive materials, cosplay and wearables have never been easier to craft!  These  Conductive Nylon Squares  go great with our other interesting materials, such as copper tape, ITO glass or plastic, conductive inks, etc. We found that the metallic nylon fabric has some great improvements over plain copper tape. First of all,  it doesn't crack when bent or twisted! So you can make all...

We've been making so many face shields here at Adafruit that we have a bunch of elastic left over and thought it would be handy for folks making PPE. Here is a 10-pack of Elastic Latex Strips, especially useful for making face shields or face masks. No 3D printing required - although you can also use these with 3D printed designs to make them fit nicely. These are just the elastic strips, no staples or tape included. Pre-cut to 14" /...

We've been stocking some options in conductive copper foil and nylon tape recently, but sometimes a project needs material that's more analog . Enter this nice chunky spool of Rainbow Crafting Yarn ! You can use this material to decorate your robot, or of course as a colorful twin in guides such as the Crickit Mini Golf Course or the Carnival Swing Ride Yarn is made of cotton, you could use it for knitting too!

What do you get when you power a layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between two sheets of glass? A  Liquid Crystal Light Valve (a.k.a a LCD Controllable Black-out Panel)! They're often used for electric welding helmets because they can protect the welder's eyes from the bright sparks. Or – if you aren't a welder – they can be used to provide a "reveal" effect for your...

This lightweight, flexible fabric ribbon cable contains four channels of conductive thread, perfect for wiring up wearables where flexibility is key. Use it to connect your conductive fabric gamepad to your microcontroller or computer! Features: Low resistance: ~16 Ω / ft. [304.80 mm]4 Conductor connectionsPower and data applicationsLight-weightSewableWashable and dryableStitchable over apparel construction seamsFoldable onto itself...

This lightweight, flexible fabric ribbon cable contains four channels of conductive thread, perfect for wiring up wearables where flexibility is key. Use it to connect your conductive fabric gamepad to your microcontroller or computer! Features: Low resistance: ~16 Ω / ft. [304.80 mm]4 Conductor connectionsPower and data applicationsLight-weightSewableWashable and dryableStitchable over apparel construction seamsFoldable onto itself...

Discontinued - you can grab Linear SoftPot (Ribbon Sensor) - 100mm instead!    This soft potentiometer is an interesting way to add an adjustable resistor / slide potentiometer to your wearable. You can use it to adjust the brightness of an LED, or as a sensor input to your Flora or Gemma. When the ring slides up and down the ribbon, the resistance from the end of the ribbon to ring will vary from ~100 ohms to about 8Kohm. To use as...

This lightweight, flexible fabric ribbon channel contains four individual wires, perfect for wiring up wearables where flexibility is key. This ribbon has 4 x 28AWG stranded-core wires, easy to solder but also quite flexible. There's no risk of accidental shorts since each wire is sleeved, and you can also pass a fair bit of current Features: Ultra-low resistance: ~0.25 Ω / m 4 Conductor connections Power and data applications Sewable...

Soft and stretchy, this  Eeonyx   Stretchy Variable Resistance Sensor fabric is great for making soft sensors or wearables that need to adjust and move. This is a bidirectionally stretchy nylon+spandex fabric coated with a long-lasting conductive coating that changes resistance when you pull on it! It's perfect for making stretch or strain sensors, by measuring the resistance change from one end of the fabric to the other -...