I’ve been worried because I haven’t seen any ugly sweater projects, but luckily Dawn Dupriest has calmed my holiday nerves. She is on an ugly streak, with this being her third ugly holiday wearable in a row. Of course this one may rep her best year, with LEDs synchronized to music and a special theme—Pumas. Dawn is not trying to promote a sneaker brand here; she is merely using this as a STEM reminder for her e-textile loving students at Preston Middle School, home of the Pumas! If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the wonderland reference.

The sweater uses a Lilypad Arduino Simple Snap, matching LEDs, button and buzzer. There’s some nice coding which allows for a shooting star animation when the sweater is not in music mode. You can check out Dawn’s tutorial on Hackster.io for details, but one important tip is to use a base of felt or other fabric tacked to the inside of the sweater to provide stability and to hide most of the stitches. Remember that conductive thread doesn’t stretch, so it’s better to create the stitches in a firm fabric. I like the addition of glittery pom-poms, felt and other craft items which give this sweater its homespun charm. Congrats to Dawn for being an early bird for holiday wearables and a cool tech mentor.

Are you looking for the next hacked holiday sweater that will wow your friends? Check out our learning guide for the Neopixel Matrix Snowflake Sweater. This project can be done using our FLORA microcontroller system or our Feather all-in-one solution; both offer BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) which means you can control the sweater with your phone! If you are a teacher, this is your big opportunity to discuss crystal formations and electronics in the same class. Even if you aren’t a teacher, you can have fun sporting something that combines science and tech. Get stitching!

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!