Michele Hirata

I'm Michele Hirata, owner/designer of Fat Thumb Originals. I only use Dharma Trading Company Fiber Reactive dyes and ready-to-dye cotton clothing. My company started by tie-dyeing old t-shirts then cutting the shirts into strips for knitting hats. We gave many hats away to hospitals for chemo patients and quickly received request from all. The hats are really comfortable and never hot or itchy. Now, we sell in a few high-end boutiques and travel festivals around the country. Our hats are still our most popular product and we continue to give many away to chemo patients. I've tried many dyes, and Dharma by far carries the best products and information on the market. Please take time to read the following article:

Heart for cancer patients spins a successful yarn

By AMANDA CREEL

The Mississippi Press

OCEAN SPRINGS -- One woman's desire to help cancer patients to honor her mom's memory has turned to big business for a stay-at-home mom.

Less than 3 years ago, Michele Hirata's mother, Marsha Robinson-O'Banion was diagnosed with terminal cancer and as a patient, Robinson-O'Banion hated wearing wigs and hats.

"My mother had breast cancer and was a hippie from the 60s, so she hated wearing wigs or hats. And, that always stayed in the back of my mind," Hirata said.

As she mourned for her mother, Hirata picked up knitting, which became the perfect therapy for her.

What started as therapy turned into a passion for knitting and a heavy heart to create a cap that would be comfortable to cancer patients.

The chemo hats are made out of t-shirt like material, which allows the scalp to breathe, doesn't cause itching and keeps your head warm, answering many complaints Hirata had heard from her mother and other cancer patients.

"I choose to make my chemo hats out of tie-dyed t-shirt rags because what is more comfortable than a t-shirt," Hirata said.

One of the signature features of her hats are funky tabs of fabric that have become an inadvertent trademark, she said.

"The tabs were a mistake, but that's what people love," Hirata said.

The hats were a huge hit with the cancer patients she donated to in Monterey, Calif., but the buzz about her hats went beyond hospital corridors.

"People were offering me money to make them a hat," Hirata said.

That's when Hirata, with the help of a friend, Lauren Cohen, started her own company, Fat Thumb Originals. Hirata began to branch out with new creations such as purses, shawls, girls' dresses and shirts, rugs, wine koozies and and all types of hats crafted in the same style as the chemo caps.

"We are going to be one of the stories that start off in your basement and make it big time," Hirata said.

Though after less than two years working to get their business off the ground, Hirata's husband, a member of the U.S. Air Force , learned they would be transferred to Keesler Air Force Base.

Hirata was nervous that the move would not be good for business, but now she thinks being a military wife could help get the buzz about her products going in new places.

"I wasn't expecting Fat Thumbs to take off here, but it did," Hirata said.

Some of Hirata's new neighbors in Fort Bayou Estates in Ocean Springs are already big fans of Hirata and her creations especially her purses and shawls.

"I think she is going to become famous. I think she is on the ground floor of something big," said Wanda Williams, who donates her time to help Hirata knit hats for chemotherapy patients.

However, neighbors are not just impressed with the products, but the stay-at-home mom's desire to help cancer patients.

"She gives a way all these hats to cancer patients. She is just a wonderful person," said Maria Verret, as she shows off her own Fat Thumb Original purse.

Hirata, does the final touches on all of her products, but also has several people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, who help with the initial knitting and crocheting.

But, Hirata doesn't want to stop with producing the chemo hats herself, she wants to provide the technology and information that will help people around the country to make chemo hats.

"I want to sell the t-shirt material as yarn so everyone in America can make Chemo caps. I even want to write a book about how to make the chemo caps," Hirata said.

Hirata said her overall goal is to make more money, so that she can donate even more chemo caps to chemotherapy patients throughout the U.S.

"We give the chemo caps to chemo patients and we sell the other products to make the money to give to other people," Hirata said.

Hirata added, "My whole business has been built on helping others."