Homemade iPad Case

A few days ago I popped into the Pasadena Apple Store to look at iPad cases. I had thought that my requirements were fairly simple: a landscape slipcase with easy iPad insertion/removal that can itself be easily moved in and out of my bag. Everything at the store, however, seemed bulky, expensive and inelegant.

His spidey sense tingling at my obvious indecision (or perhaps just tickled by his curly beard), an impetuously precocious Apple employee approached. His admonition, however, was not one I expected: “now, nobody from Apple is telling you this, but if I were you, I’d go to etsy and buy a handmade case instead.” Cue my white liberal guilt.¹ Being thus rendered unable to feel good about buying yet another petroleum-derived consumer product made by underpaid workers in the third world, I decided to make my own case.

To be fair, the case is made from vegetarian leather, which is still petroleum-derived², but I rescued the material from a doomed college project ³ so I think it technically constitutes recycling.

The inside of the case is made from car headliner fabric. You know, the kind that you used to get yelled at for picking off the roof of your parents’ Plymouth Volare? No? Was that just me?

The entire case is made from two pieces of fabric, folded onto itself in various ways. All edges had to be folded over twice because the veggie leather is backed with fuzzy white stuff which doesn’t look good when it’s exposed. The exact dimensions are a closely guarded secret ⁴.

Seams were sewn on a Singer 301a that belonged to my late grandmother. I’m afraid I have a long way to go in learning how to use it properly, but I hope my attempt would have made her proud.

Using scotch tape along the seams really helped the machine glide along without bunching the material. The tape can be removed afterward by carefully pulling perpendicular to the seam, otherwise you end up with a bunch of small tape pieces that must be pulled out from under the thread by hand.

The finished case works nicely for propping the iPad up while typing on the train.

I enjoyed this project immensely. It was a real kick to make something I’ve never attempted before from materials that were lying around. Hope you enjoyed it too!

More pictures and comments can be found at this project’s flickr set →.

Oh, and to my bearded muse in the bright turquoise t-shirt, if you’re reading this and still haven’t made up your mind about your own case, I’ll totally make you one of these.

Steam Cars

A couple Saturdays ago, @kriskowal and I found ourselves at a meeting of the Southern California chapter of the Steam Automobile Club of America of which Kris’s father is president. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen these steam cars in action. Getting to ride on these gentle and majestic contraptions was a real treat:

Kris’s father brought the Dampf ‘Bil, a wood-burning, steam powered go-kart of sorts:

Kris explains more about how it works:

It’s a really simple car, a model of the minimal steam powered automobile, built on the chassis of a wood trash-cart. The steam generator is a Dixon Boilerworks “fire tube” boiler; it burns wood under a five gallon reservoir with tubes that allow the heated air to exchange with the water. It operates between 40 and 75 PSI. The steam drives two 5” tall double-acting steam engines, offset by 90 degrees, attached directly to the rear-right wheel with a bike chain (no derailleur). The boiler is fed by a highly ineffective hydraulic landing gear pump from a 2 gallon antifreeze container repurposed for water. The boiler also has a garden hose attachment which we use to fill the boiler when cold, and to “blow down”: use the boiler’s remaining pressure to empty the boiler.

Look at it go! (that’s me riding.)

The only problem is that one tends to get covered in soot while driving it (that’s Kris):

As you can see, fun was had by all. :)