Category: Plush Night Light

Key Concept
– Small, cute decorative night light for everyone
– With hanging loop, you can hang everywhere.

Material used
– Mesh fabric (with sparse weaving) for the air balloon
– Velvet (Ivory, Light brown) for the basket and the strap
– Braided leather strip for the power button indicator and the hanging loop
– Two LEDs
– Batter pack with On/Off switch

Parts detail

Photos

Process
– Sewing sparse mesh fabric was not easy.
– Including the battery pack as part of design was also challenging.

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Ideation/Circuit design

My plush toy, “How does the Flower Drink Water” is designed for young curious minds who have just started learning about our environment and ecosystem. The placement of lights in this toy highlights the roots and the stem, instead of the flower itself to bring attention to the xylem and flow of water.

When we learn how to draw a flower as kids, we almost always ignore the roots, the main source of nutrition. As a recent plant mom, I learnt after many avoidable plant deaths, the importance of understanding the root system and how it drastically affects the health of the plant.

Materials and Parts used

1. Three Chiffon Fabrics
2. Inside Fluff
3. Thread and Needle
4. Battery Pack
5. Red and Green LEDs
6. Resistors
7. Soldering Iron
8. Cardboard
9. Electrical Heating Tubes
10. Electrical Tape

For me the project can be divided into two parts, therapeutic sewing and stressful soldering. It was a pretty simple circuit to prepare but I struggled with assembling the LEDs, facing away from each other and placed at the joint of stem and roots. Finally when I had managed to secure the circuit within the plush toy and took it to the photo studio, one of the soldering came off. I successfully reassembled but then something else started malfunctioning. Hence, the final shots do not have the LEDs lit up.

Circuit Diagram

If I had more time, I would have

1. Soldered better
2. Changed the positioning of the green LED
3. Hid the battery pack in the leaf
4. Coded the LEDs on the Arduino to light up one after the other, starting from the roots to the bottom of the flower

Description

• Project Name: Hills
• Target User: People who always lose bracelets and rings in somewhere.
• Scenario: 15 mins later when you get home, the bracelet hill and the ring hill will remind you to keep your items in the right place for avoiding losing them.
• Material: 3 blue LED, 1 green LED, 4 resisters, 2 different colors’ fabric, chipboard, 2 magnets, wires, solder, white thread, 2 fabric balls, stuffings, electrical tape instead of heat shrink.

Process

Experience

• Remember to put tube before soldering. Wire tabs could be the alternative materials, but not as robust as tube.
• The size of circuit would be best to match the size of plush. Otherwise, you need to find a cover for it.

Meet Charlie, a huggable sleeping companion for kids who are afraid of sleeping alone in the dark. The glowing heart represents Charlie’s love for his buddy.

Overall, besides the fact that I ran out of time to fix the two lights that didn’t work, this project turns out exactly how I envisioned. There was a lot of trial and error with getting the proportion right and finding suitable fabric.

In the end, this plush toy is perfectly sized and feels very comforting to hug. The soft light draws attention to the heart without being too blinding. Great as a sleep buddy for kids who are afraid of the dark.

It was a lot of fun to use a combination of new skills from soldering, electrical to sewing complex curves with the machine. I had a lot of fun.

Slothman- the fearless is the perfect superhero plush toy to help children feel fearless and brave.

Why a sloth superhero- plush toy?

1. The goal is to empower kids of all ages to feel courageous. The eyes of the sloth lights up as its superpower. Sloths are slow animals but one interesting fact about them is that they are actually blind. However, they are also known to be much stronger than humans. The eyes lights up red as an attack mechanism since they cannot see, it shoots lasers to fight back.
2. Adopting a superhero identity can help children develop moral values. Superhero play allows them to explore abstract ideas of good and bad.
3. To inspire and help children overcome their fears

Process Pictures

Slothman-The Fearless in action- Attacking a villain.

Takeaways

1. It was my first time working with LEDs. Although it did get challenging at times, it was mostly a rewarding feeling.
2. Since I hand sewn each part separately, the most challenging part of the project was to figure out where to hand sew the claw placement and how to attach the head back to the body.
3. Getting the lights to diffuse properly in the eyes region was especially hard because the LED kept moving so i had to hand sew it from the inside to prevent it from shifting side to side.

The nightlight is for aliens who live on a planet always in the sun. They arrive on Earth on a moonless night, down a country road where the only light is from a little kid’s room. The Alien Soother Nightlight is there, the balm needed. The target audience is for young children who are afraid of the dark and aliens, AND aliens afraid of the dark and humans.

The nightlight is very calming and relaxing (and I’m not saying that because it’s late…;) because of it’s muted light source and the white and orange glow.

I used fleece, white ping pong balls, white thread, a battery pack with 2 batteries, wire- red, white, orange, gray, classic fiber fill, heat wrap, LED lights, resistors, solder.

This was a super-fun process. I did not know exactly how it would roll out as so much is new and yet a repeat of what we did in class and viewed on line helped… A gentle introduction and confidence-builder for those of us new to sewing, soldering, electricity. I had to repeat a few steps because my soldering was sub-par or I’d forgotten to include the heat-shrinking material before I soldered. I used way too much wire length-wise. If I’d had more time I would have made a more expressive object, done a more exacting sewing job and figured out why my 5th ping pong ball lit less brightly than the others.

Volcano Plush Night Light

The volcano was originally a dangerous and inaccessible thing, turning it into a plush lamp, shortening the distance between us and the volcano. It can be used as an atmosphere lamp on the bedside or as a prop for meditation. In addition, I find that looking at it makes me feel very warm, which is very suitable for use in winter. Its target group is mainly souvenirs from tourists who have been to areas with volcanoes.

Materials used

• Red and gray fabric
• White cotton filler
• Red LEDs*6
• AAA Batteries
• Electric wire

Tools used

Scissors, printing paper, needle thread, hot melt glue

Process

If I have more time to do it, I will test a few more on round table-shaped sewing. I finally know why there is a gap between the rendering image on my computer and the proofing image of the manufacturer every time~

Plush Night Light: Nihaarika Arora

About

U2hug allows women to rest their lower back during and before menstruation. Inspired by the female uterus this plush night light duals as a back pillow in the shape of a women’s uterus that supports the back. Its fallopian tubes are described as arms hugging the waist and the fimbriae are described as helping hands that light up giving the user a sense of comfort.

The Problem

80% of women worldwide spend five to seven days in a month from mild discomfort to debilitating pain that interferes with daily activities.

Lower back pain associated with your period can start a few days before menstruation (PMS) and get better after your period is over. This type of back pain is typically muscular and caused by hormonal changes.

The Story

Lisa is a 29 year old woman (Target User) who is suffering from lower back pain before during her menstruation and is waiting to head back home from school. She has been in the studio all day and has not had a chance to rest.

The concept of U2hug, a plush night light is inspired by the literal form of a women’s uterus. The product attempts to provide a sense of comfort and security for women during their period by supporting the back.

Lisa can also carry U2hug with her during long days at the studio and can have a 20 minute power nap by relaxing her lower back.

Design Process

After the exploratory sketches, I created a paper pattern to help guide the template for the fabric. I chose a light pink wool fabric that is soft to the touch and decided to embed 6 LED white lights into the palms of my plush night light. I also added a translucent foam film to better defuse the light. Initially I was imagining the name of the product embroidered on the front of the pillow. However, I decided to go with a smaller embroidered name tag “U2hug” on the side of the plush night light.

Material List

1. Pink wool fabric
2. Light Pink thread
3. Dark pink thread (embroidery)
4. Fiber Fill
5. Translucent film
6. 3xAAA batteries
7. 6x White LED’s

Circuit Diagram

Final Product

Product in Use

Takeaways

1. It was my first attempt at using the embroidery machine at the VFL and I was very satisfied with its outcome.
2. I decided to challenge myself and hand sew the plush toy. The most challenging part was perfecting the ridges between the fingers. Also,adding the fiber fill to the fingers was a challenging task. I also had a hard time finding the perfect material to defuse the light and fit in the palm.
3. The future refinement of this product would be to have the pillow heat up with a cordless recharging system to alleviate cramps from period pain.

Terrance the tardigrade isn’t your average tardigrade – he’s radioactive! While under observation aboard the International Space Station, Terrance was hit by extraordinary levels of gamma radiation emitted from an ancient star going supernova. The researchers quickly realized something wasn’t normal. Over the next several days, terrance grew 200 times his natural size and began to glow with a brillant white light.

Terrance is intended to inspire and spark joy with anybody who has a deep love of science and science fiction alike. He can be a bedtime buddy or a lab companion!

I had a lot of fun with this project! This was my first time working with LEDs and I learned a little about resistors and ohms. I ended up hand sewing the entire toy and took a sock monkey approach like Becky had reccomended. I think if I were to do it again, I’d try to figure out a better way to make folds. It turned out cute and plump but not exactly how I had intended.