From Patches to Shirts

Chloë Pennington’s Final Idea Incubator Presentation

Patches

I started the semester working on patches using Hatch, a platform I had never used before. I made all the designs on Hatch and then sewed them on the Brother sewing machine, which I had also never used before. I encountered many challenges with both Hatch and the Brother machine, from terrible software to the string breaking while sewing, but persevered through the challenges. I ended up making a lot of creative patches, from hearts to graduated cylinders, and even sewed some onto sweatshirts.

Women In Science Club

I was inspired to make the Dawson Women In Science Club when I realized that there were no STEM clubs at school. I am very passionate about science and had a lot of fun making and organizing the club. The club is currently focused on working expanding period product access in bathrooms, and making one-pagers to educate students about healthcare. Next year, we are arranging a panel of specialists to speak at Upper School Meeting.

Heat Transfering Shirts

I was inspired to make heat transfer t-shirts for my friends and family, and had a lot of fun doing it. I worked hard with Adobe Illustrator to create images, and then heat transferred them onto a shirt. This process was very easy and fun.

What did you learn?

​

​

​

​

​

What did you make?

What did you learn?

​

Over the course of the semester I experimented with a lot of different resources, from Hatch to sewing to Adobe Illustrator. I had never worked with Hatch, and spent a long amount of time working on learning how to use it, and then how to set it up for sewing. This process included learning how to hoop, which took me ages to get proficient in, because of how challenging it is. I also learned how to fix the machine when the thread got tangled (which happened regularly), and learned how to rethread it through the machine. Since I had not sewn in a long time, I also watched a lot of sewing tutorials to become better at sewing for the sweatshirt, and it definitely helped. I ended up sewing over everything twice to ensure that it wouldn’t break. I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator to turn things from stickers to iron on images, and had a lot of fun with finding all the images and outlining them in preparation. Finally, I also learned how to work really well in a group, because of the club that I started during Idea Incubator. Through the club I was able to focus on my passion of healthcare, and worked hard on collaborating with my club mates. Overall, I learned a lot and am very grateful that I was able to do so much.

What did you make?

​

I learned how to use a new machine, Hatch, and the technology that came with it. At first, it was very challenging to use because I had never used it before, and it’s super glitchy. Over time, I became more confident using Hatch and began doing really well with the sewing machine. Through hatches, I made dozens of different patches, from hearts to science beakers, all for friends, family or teachers. For a bigger project I sewed three patch hearts from Hatch onto a sweatshirt, to make a unique design. I also began working with Adobe Illustrator to create iron on designs for t-shirts. This project was very fun because I got to be very creative while using a new technology. Overall I learned a lot and am very proud with what I made.