dear all! we´ve been starting to sew! Completely new territory for me. But with Wiebke´s help it´ll become a decent prototype of a costume – hopefully.

We started out with a basic vest. It overlaps and closes on the side. The collar is really tall and will be the junction of suit and helmet. It´s made from textile that we had laying around. Our final version will be made from the black rubbery textile.

The backpack/oxygen tank straps will be attached on the inside of the vest, so that the straps won´t be visible.

We added gill like folds to the vest to give it a futuristic/ organic look.

On the inside of the folds we attached some plastic sheet. It makes the vest much more rigid and adds interesting texture.

The plastic sheet distributes the light from the el wire very nicely as you can see here. All the folds on each side will be lit with blue and white el wire.

This might be a solution of how to attach the el wire inside the folds. Shrink tube or small rubber bands might be another solution.

Finally we´ve jused the real material for the first real diver vest prototype! The fabric we bought is usually made for upholstery puposes. We turned it inside out for the right “fish leather” effect, since the now ouside is covered with this rubbery, almost sticky surface texture. Our sewing machines hate that fabric though! It doesn´t transport very well and is quite thick. It´s impossible to iron into shape as well. More difficulties that we had to deal with.

Also: We love stand-up collars, if you haven´t noticed.

After the gills were added, Susann and Marco came into the textile workshop to add the electroluminescent wire to the vest!

Technical Details on how the EL wire is connected to battery pack, Arduino, buttons, see post here.