the sparkle project ◆ she codes australia

stitched and coded into one dress.

Kate Kirwin founded She Codes, which has helped more than 7,000 women into tech. Her dress was designed on MadeApt, tailored by Amina and Anela, and made to light up by the very women she taught to code.

git commit -m "a full-circle moment"

design your own see how it was made

7,000+: women into tech
3: lives, one dress
1: made, for kate

the garment ◆ worn by kate

the render

git branch --list

one dress, three lives.

Kate Kirwin on a panel, holding a microphone, in the black sweetheart-neck dress with its lights off

little black dress.

Lights off, it is a structured scuba-cotton dress cut to Kate's measurements. Nothing to explain.

Close view of the skirt: overlapping rings of violet and amber LEDs under a sheer black overlay, a lit matrix belt above

lit.

Rings and strips of LEDs across the skirt, a matrix at the waist. The dress answers the room.

Design render of the same black dress with a sheer overlay embroidered in purple flowers

the render

in bloom.

Swap the light for a floral embroidered overlay and the same dress goes soft.

type:: garment
fabric:: scuba cotton
fit:: made to measure
branch:: tech-exploration
commits:: 4

git log --oneline

we made the dress. they made it sparkle.

MadeApt designed and tailored the garment. Every light on it is the work of the She Codes community.

Design render of a black sweetheart dress with a glowing multicolour skirt, belt and straps

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designed on madeapt

A digital experiment first: the shape, the overlay, where the light would sit.

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tailored by amina and anela

Cut and sewn in structured scuba cotton, then fitted on Kate.

The skirt laid flat on a table with LED strips fanned out and lit, a laptop, a controller board and a small sensor beside it

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wired by she codes women

Strips, rings, a matrix belt and a distance sensor, soldered and coded at a kitchen table.

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first light

The moment it switched on.

swipe ◆ four commits

git clone https://github.com/ProjectSparkle

the code is open. code your own.

The She Codes women published everything: the code, the parts, the wiring. Design the dress here, then make it sparkle your way. Courtesy of She Codes Australia.

v1 · perth, feb 2026

the first build

Code, the full parts list and a wiring guide for a Raspberry Pi: a 600-LED strip waterfall, an 8×32 matrix logo and a proximity flash. MIT licensed.

clone v1

v2 · brisbane, apr 2026

multi-zone, interactive

Three zones on one Pi 4: a 300-LED strip, chained rings, a distance sensor and a microphone that reacts to the crowd. One power bank per zone.

clone v2

v3 + v4 · sydney, ddd perth

still being written

The music-recognition trial and the DDD Perth reveal land in the same organisation as they are published. Watch the org to catch them.

watch the org

Raspberry Pi, addressable LEDs and Python. The garment is a MadeApt design; the light is theirs to share.

full circle

she taught them to code. they made her dress light up.

Kate wore it to the She Codes Australia graduation in Perth. It began as a digital fashion experiment and ended on stage: local talent, collaborative making, and a room full of the women it was made by.