{"id":6627,"date":"2025-09-29T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/?page_id=6627"},"modified":"2026-03-04T21:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:00:55","slug":"from-fabric-to-fun","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/from-fabric-to-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fabric to Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Student Innovation Improves Life for Campus’s Smallest Residents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fall 2025 Newsletter Article<\/h6>\n\n\n
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\n\t\t\tA rat enjoying Gabby’s creation<\/span>\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tA hammock being sewn together<\/span>\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tA hammock coming to life<\/span>\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tHammock fabric selection<\/span>\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tAnother happy campus rat<\/span>\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tGabby in the Idea Lab at the sewing machine<\/span>\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t <\/swiper-gallery>\n<\/section>\n\n\n
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The Idea Lab is an impactful resource supporting a dynamic campus community – even the smallest animals amongst us.<\/p>\n \t <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

The Idea Lab is Macalester\u2019s hands-on makerspace\u2014a vibrant community hub bringing together students, faculty, and staff from across disciplines to create, experiment, and learn. It’s where big ideas and small, meaningful projects come to life, like the one recently led by Gabby Simpson \u201925.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since her sophomore year, Gabby has worked as a handler and caregiver for Animal Facilities in OLRI. This past summer, the entire caregiver team collaborated on a special mission to enrich the daily lives of the rats. Gabby took the lead on the playcage project, a focused effort to give the rats a more stimulating environment during play periods. To enhance their experience, she had a clear idea: hammocks the rats could climb in, crawl on, sleep in, and, inevitably, chew up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was used to making these a lot in high school with my mom\u2019s sewing supplies. I had three pet rats in high school,” Gabby shared. This previous experience made the Idea Lab the perfect place to execute the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapting patterns from an online source, Tutorials for Common Rat Hammocks and Accessories<\/em>, Gabby used the Idea Lab’s sewing machines and supplies to create a variety of designs, including square, tunnel, and corner hammocks. The result?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rats love them!\u201d Gabby beams. “The hammocks are so simple to sew, so as the rats chew through them, new ones can be made,” they add. Are you interested in sewing a rat hammock? If so, here are Gabby\u2019s step by step instructions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabby’s Rat Hammock Instruction Sheet<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student Innovation Improves Life for Campus’s Smallest Residents Fall 2025 Newsletter Article The Idea Lab is Macalester\u2019s hands-on makerspace\u2014a vibrant community hub bringing together students, faculty, and staff from across disciplines to create, experiment, and learn. It’s where big ideas and small, meaningful projects come to life, like the one recently led by Gabby Simpson […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":893,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6627","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6627"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7905,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6627\/revisions\/7905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/entrepreneurship-and-innovation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}