From Smartphone to Fabric: Mobile Embroidery Programming: Improving the maker workflow to reduce entry barriers in STEAM

Equipping the next generation with skills in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM), including computational thinking and graphic design, is crucial. Yet it can be difficult for young people to sustain interest in technology – particularly for girls due to persistent differences in their socialization. Project-based learning combining hands-on experience with fashion and design offers a promising means of sparking and sustaining interest in technology. Mobile embroidery programming is one such project, but there are still challenges to be overcome in transferring embroidery files to programmable embroidery machines as part of school courses or coding weeks. This report presents a device we developed that facilitates wireless file transfer. The embroidery file, encoded in a common format like DST, can be wirelessly transferred to the embroidery machine. We optimized the process of the embroidery workflow in a series of 14 workshops. Furthermore, we tested additional hardware for embroidery file transfer based on Raspberry Pi on a group of 18 participants. Our findings suggest that wireless file transfer may be useful with other maker devices such as 3D printers. The results will benefit schools, maker spaces, code clubs, and individual users seeking to engage in STEAM activities.