SteamHead Courses · Free & Self-Paced

MakeFashion Edu — Introduction Course

Guide young designers to create fashion tech pieces that tell the story of an advocacy project — learn, design, construct, and exhibit on the runway.

Start the Course

This is the original 2022 course, preserved in full. A restructured 2026 updated edition is also available.

The Lessons

0 of 14 complete

Storytelling & Advocacy

  1. Introduction: Fashion Tells a Story Introduces students to the idea that clothing communicates identity, prompting discussion about the stories fashion tells.
  2. Fashion as Activism Surveys historical moments where fashion was used to advocate for or against a cause, from suffrage to Pride.
  3. Driving Question: Choosing Your Cause Students select a subject, policy, or issue to research and recruit teammates to design a runway advocacy piece about it.

Media Literacy

  1. Media Literacy Introduces the SIFT method for separating fact from fiction online while researching an advocacy topic.

Fashion Design

  1. Elements of Fashion Design Introduces color, line, shape, and texture as design elements students can use to strengthen their advocacy message.

Circuits & Electronics

  1. LEDs & Circuits Introduction Students explore coin cell batteries and LEDs hands-on to discover how a basic circuit works before learning the technical terms.
  2. Paper Circuits Guides students through building simple, parallel, and series copper tape circuits on paper, then applying them to a hoodie design.
  3. Wearable Copper Tape Circuits Moves circuit skills onto the body and clothing, exploring conductive accessories for a wearable, advocacy-ready design.

Design Activities

  1. Client Stories Students design for a fictional client to build empathy and practice using color, line, shape, and texture with intention.
  2. What's Your Story? Students begin developing the personal or advocacy story their runway piece will tell, refining it through research and writing.
  3. Crazy Headwear Challenge Students design and build wearable headwear with a working lit circuit, taking their first step into 3-dimensional construction.
  4. Trashion Fashion Students build a runway-ready fashion tech piece entirely from reused and recyclable materials to tell a reduce-reuse-recycle story.
  5. Cutting, Patterns & Sewing Introduces the sewing machine through paper-guide practice, then a patchwork fabric activity to build cutting and sewing skills.

Exhibition

  1. Gallery & Exhibition Guides teachers through planning a gallery-style exhibition so young designers can share their stories with a public audience.

About This Course

Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone wears clothing that tells part of that story. From colors once reserved for nobility to team uniforms, fashion brings people together and sets them apart — and throughout history it has been used to advocate for (or against) an issue or a cause. MakeFashion Edu Advocacy guides young designers to create fashion tech pieces that tell the story of an advocacy project.

Young designers today aren't limited to fabric: lights, sensors, and microcontrollers become part of the story. In this course you will experience and experiment with the MakeFashion Edu process as designers:

Learn

about the elements of fashion and circuits

Design

a story and the wearable that tells it

Construct

a fashion tech piece using recyclable materials and lights

Exhibit

be seen! Our favorite medium is the runway

See it in action: Tucson MakeFashion Edu Runway, 2019.

Who You Will Meet

Throughout the course you'll meet experts with deep knowledge in their fields and ample experience in fashion technology. What they show you is one way to do it — by no means the only way. Explore every concept through your own lens!

  • Maria Hoover Designer · Co-founder MakeFashion, Fuse33
  • James Simpson Engineer · Co-founder SteamHead
  • Twila Busby Curriculum Director, MakeFashion Edu Director
  • Carrie Leung Educator · Co-founder MakeFashion Edu
  • Elisa Busby Educator · MakeFashion Edu Developer
  • Hayle B. Student · MakeFashion Edu Designer

Materials List

Essentials

  • Computer with WiFi connection
  • Sewing machine

The Basics

  • Adhesives (tape, glue, hot glue)
  • Writing/coloring tools
  • Connectors (staples, paper clips, binder clips, string/yarn/thread)
  • Scissors
  • Measuring tools

Basic Tech

  • Fairy lights
  • Single LEDs
  • Copper tape or Maker tape
  • Coin cell batteries (CR2032)

More Advanced Tech

  • Mosfet
  • LED strips
  • Microcontroller (Micro:bit, Circuit Playground Express)
  • Power supply

Trashion Fashion Construction

  • Recyclables: paper, aluminum foil, fabric scraps, grocery bags — whatever imaginative materials you find!

Runway Fashion Tech Pieces

  • Thrifted dresses, shirts, shorts, pants, jackets, etc.
  • Variety of fabric
  • Sewing notions: thread, needles, pins

Hardware sourcing links live on The Shelf.

Printable Worksheets

Every worksheet used in the course, in one place. Each also appears in the lesson it belongs to.