Fran Matherne’s dining room has been turned into a sewing room, and for someone who didn’t know how to sew just a few months ago, that’s a pretty big change.

Matherne is the president of the Slidell Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, the group responsible for running the hospital’s gift shop and reception areas. In addition, they help fund various capital items throughout the hospital and raise money to provide scholarships to students pursuing degrees in the healthcare field.

It’s her newfound hobby, however, that may be having the biggest impact. The Slidell woman is a member of the Woodland Homeowner’s Association, which for the last 20 years or so has been making dolls and patchwork quilts for young patients. Recently, a club member came down with pancreatic cancer and lost all her hair after beginning chemotherapy treatments. While wearing a baseball cap one day, someone told her she looked like a man, which didn’t do a lot for her self-esteem.

Matherne and a few others decided to see if they could come up with a more attractive accessory.

“I figure we can’t cure their disease or stop their suffering, but we can make them a pretty hat,” said Matherne. “This way they don’t have to wear an itchy scarf or a dull baseball cap or one of those uncomfortably hot wigs.”

The last sewing project Matherne had taken on was a toy dog in her high school home economics class, and she couldn’t even thread a sewing machine, but she jumped into the project enthusiastically. With the help of another member she quickly worked up a tam with a soft brim, and it was an immediate hit.

Their friend was thrilled.

“She said it was the first thing she’d won that was really soft and didn’t irritate,” said Matherne. “She asked if we could do a few more so she could give them to other patients.”

As word spread, Matherne recruited a few members of the Auxiliary to help, then some friends in her bowling league. Each woman has produced at least six to eight hats in a rainbow of colors and patterns, made of soft velvet, light fleece or knit fabrics.

The hats are never sold but are donated to anyone who needs them. As word has spread of the project, people have come forward offering contributions of fabric, money and time.

When the ladies modeled their hats during the recent SMH Women’s Health Alliance luncheon, Matherne met a massage therapist who wanted one for a family member. Later, he offered to donate his services to the group, and Matherne hopes he can participate in a special event in the works, called “Look Good, Feel Good.”

“It’s a special luncheon where we’ll have manicures and pedicures, makeup sessions, and now head and neck massages,” said Matherne. “We don’t have the details or the date worked out yet.”

Another individual donated more than $200 to the group, which will provide the group with lots of thread and soft material. Matherne said with the hospital’s planned regional cancer center planning to break ground soon, more hats will be needed than ever, so her group will stay busy.

While learning to sew has been a challenge, she said making the hats never feels like labor.

“Cancer affects every walk of life,” she said. “These hats let them know that people care, and that they can dress up and feel beautiful.”