SHIRT BUTTONS
The Builder: Carley Lauder @offthepagelearning
For years, Lauder, a Hong Kong–based educator,
has made LEGO part of her classroom curriculum.
“LEGO levels the playing field in play and conversa-
tions between kids and adults,” she says. However,
“many adult fans of LEGO make amazing models
with skills, time, and money that I don’t have—yet.”
That’s why Lauder, also an amateur seamstress,
picked a deceptively simple project for this chal-
lenge: sewing round LEGO plates onto a collared
shirt, and using them as buttons.
Lauder attached the light-gray plates—a color
that’s “not obviously LEGO until you get close up”—
with four main stitches branching out from the
center axle holes, and wrapped the thread around
itself between the plates and fabric to form small
shanks. The clever hack took one hour, tops.
“I love builds that do something as well as look
awesome,” she says.
TAB LET STAN DThe Builder: Siddhaant Gajendra
@sidg_06When his college campus closed
due to the pandemic, Gajendra, an
architecture tech student, suddenly
found himself reimagining his home
workspace. “I like things to work the
way I want them to,” he says. And
there was one obvious problem: His
tablet wouldn’t stay upright, where
he could see it. It kept sliding down,
interrupting his studying. So he
devised a solution.
Using Technic parts, Gajendra
grabbed various length beams,pegs, and frames, and got to work.
To build a sturdy support base that
would stop the tablet from slipping
without obstructing the view, he
found a few C-shaped parts that fit
just right. And when the parts that
connected the stand’s rear leg to
the main frame were a bit longer
than necessary, Gajendra used
those pieces to fine-tune the slant
of the stand for the best possible
viewing angle.
It was a straightforward fix that
settled a pesky problem. “I wanted
to showcase the effectiveness of
simple designs,” says Gajendra.
“Things do not have to be compli-
cated to work.” CARLEYLAUDER(BUTTON);SIDDHAANT^ GAJENDRA^ (HOLDER)Pro Challenge
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