ABSTRACT
This chapter explores e-textiles - electronics embedded into clothing and other soft wearables - which exemplify a different, 'softer' way of 'doing' technology and making, one that women tend to find more attractive. It profiles several e-textile toolkits and show how they can be a source of powerful ideas. It focuses on several sets of e-textile tools: the LilyPad Arduino, Adafruit FLORA, and Aniomagic kits. The Aniomagic kits also featured LEDs, sensors, and controller boards designed to be sewable, but they greatly simplified programming with a web interface that reprograms 'over the air'. E-textiles, by incorporating electronics into textile crafts, represent a site where these two communities intersect on a material level. The LilyPad MP3 comes pre-programmed to allow you to play up to five MP3 files that you load to it with a MicroSD card, if you also attach switches and speakers or headphones.
