I failed a little bit early on with my maquette. While on the table and just simply picked up, the optic fibers stayed, but once I started to shake it, most of the optic fibers came off. I also noticed that because the EL wire wasn’t super strong, the optic fibers did not glow very well and were hard to see.

I ended up doing some research on optic fibers to see what methods other people had uses to attach them to a light source.
This article was super helpful: https://www.instructables.com/The-Beginners-Guide-to-Fiber-Optics/
One of the things the article recommended finding single floral LED lights that were essentially stand alone bulbs. These are typically pretty bright and easy to attach to things. The article also recommended using heat shrinking tubing and glue to attach the fibers to the light source.
Another article I found recommended using plastic straws and a putty like glue substance called Sugru. However, the tutorial used expired Sugru and I figured that would be harder to find. It was also just more expensive.
I decided to get some single LED lights, a black tassel skirt as a base, and a box of heat shrinking tubing. I tried to connect the optic fibers together using a heat shrinking tube and then connect that bundle to the light with a larger heat shrinking tube. This worked pretty well once I added a little electrical tape on places that I felt needed to be a little bit more secure.

My next steps are going to be trying to straighten out the optic fibers. I think this is the last challenge that I might face for this project. I have a good amount of experience sewing and I think that attaching the EL wire and optic fiber bundles to the dress and leotard will be pretty straight forward (granted this may also be my downfall, but I am hopeful).