Close
0%
0%

Light-up LED Dress for Halloween

My niece wanted to be a princess for Halloween so I made her a light-up RGB LED dress

luke-skaffLuke Skaff
Following
Liked Like project

Just one more thing

To make the experience fit your profile, pick a username and tell us what interests you.

Pick an awesome username
hackaday.io/
Your profile's URL: hackaday.io/username. Max 25 alphanumeric characters.
Pick a few interests
Projects that share your interests
People that share your interests

We found and based on your interests.

Choose more interests.

OK, I'm done! Skip
Similar projects worth following
1.6k views
3 comments
11 followers
View Gallery
This is a RGB LED light-up dress I made for my niece for Halloween 2016 as she wanted to be a princess and I wanted to make her something magical. Nearly everyone who saw it while trick-or-treating had a reaction to it.

I used 5050 RGB LED strips, a simple 12VDC regulator, and Ryobi 18V cordless tools lithium ion battery to make the LED dress.

How-to article can be found on my website here: http://lukeskaff.com/diy-light-up-led-dress/

Video: 

GIF: https://gfycat.com/DimwittedAncientDarwinsfox 

  • 1 × White Dress
  • 1 × Petticoat / undershirt
  • 1 × 5050 RGB LED strip
  • 1 × IR RGB LED strip controller
  • 1 × Ryobi Powertool Battery

View all 6 components

  • 1
    Full build instructions are on my website

    Full LED Dress how-to instructions from my blog

  • 2
    LED Mounting

    The 5050 RGB LED strips are mounted to a peiticoat / underskirt to allow the dress to be washed, modular, and to "poof" out the dress for extra effect.  The LEDs are mounted facing inward to make a diffused glow and so the dress will not have point light sources.

  • 3
    Power supply

    For the power regular I used a super overkill cheap 240W step down buck power supply I found on amazon.  I wanted something fully enclosed, waterproof, low heat, for piece of mind against arcing or overheating.  There is probably a much better potted or fully enclosed low cost solution out there and would like to see what others recommend.  There are a ton of low cost buck regulators on ebay but I have not seen good options for ones that are potted. 

View all 4 instructions

Enjoy this project?

Share

Discussions

Radu Motisan wrote 10/31/2017 at 20:03 • point

awesome, my little girl would love this too

  Are you sure? yes | no

Winston wrote 10/04/2017 at 13:43 • point

I'm seeing multiple LED strip Halloween outfits and am hoping that people doing this are using inline fuses or some other overcurrent protection methods to prevent arcs/sparks and possible resulting garment fires from the low internal resistance batteries being used. Perhaps the Ryobi Powertool Battery has internal protection for that? I see others just using multi-cell lipos. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Luke Skaff wrote 10/04/2017 at 14:33 • point

Winston, that is a good idea for a cheap added safety feature.  I will add a fast blow low current fuse after the power supply.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Does this project spark your interest?

Become a member to follow this project and never miss any updates

Going up?

About Us Contact Hackaday.io Give Feedback Terms of Use Privacy Policy Hackaday API

© 2025 Hackaday

Yes, delete it Cancel

Report project as inappropriate

You are about to report the project "Light-up LED Dress for Halloween", please tell us the reason.

Send message

Your application has been submitted.

Remove Member

Are you sure you want to remove yourself as a member for this project?

Project owner will be notified upon removal.