atomic alex's watch

previously i showed you what alex was going to be for halloween, atomic alex, and showed you the belt for the costume: http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/2011/07/atomic-alexs-belt.html next is the watch. atomic betty always wears a watch, whether she's being regular school student on earth or gallactic guardian in space. on earth it's how she's called to duty, in space it does all sorts of things like shoot lasers and nets and countless other abilities. oh, and atomic betty is back on the hub - yay. so, i wanted to make the watch at least light up when a button was pressed. i had hopes for adding sound effects too but i've never sewn with electronics so i needed to start with the basics. first of all, we had to get a good view of the watch, so one night we tried to pause the show's intro scene at the perfect spot to get a close up view of the watch so i could sketch it. i made the watch face a few times actually: the first time i tried puffy paint and i smeared it all over, then i tried sharpies and that didn't work right either, so finally i used paint pens to draw the design on the white vinyl. i covered that part with clear vinyl to protect the paint. i made the watch band part as a simple velcro strap out of pink vinyl. originally i wanted to make the watch insides accessible so that i could easily get to the battery in case it needed changing, but that proved too difficult with the vinyl and shape and of the watch. so if the battery runs out then i guess i have to rip it open and re-sew it shut. i bought the basic e-sewing arduino kit for the light and button insides of the watch. i cut out a circle of vinyl that would fit inside the watch face and drew on my simple circuit - it's basically a loop with the battery, light and button switch. i did loop in a second light to make it brighter and shine through the blue paint and vinyl. after drawing out my circuit i used the conductive thread and hand stitched on the lines and tieing off at each piece. so i'd start a new thread between the light and the switch, and a new thread between the switch and the battery, etc. it turned out great and it actually works - i was kind of proud of myself for that. i put the circuit piece into the watch face and stitched it up and then attached it to the watch band. alex loves it and wants it to wear it constantly, but i'm making her wait until halloween and then she can wear it all she wants.