To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

At Carla's Creative Workshop in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, there is a lot more than just a sewing studio.

"I love teaching. I love teaching the skill and giving it back to the community and the women of domestic violence," says Carla Selby.

A self-taught seamstress, Carla moved to the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago 25 years ago and opened her studio. It was here in the city where Selby says she became a victim of domestic violence. She quickly realized that her space could be a safe haven for other victims.

"We need to give you self sufficiency. That is the focus of what we are doing because it doesn't matter if you come in here and you go out and you are still getting battered," says Selby.

Although she has opened her door to survivors like Terry Hubbard for years, just two months ago Selby officially started a non-profit organization to offer free sewing and fashion design classes. Hubbard has started a hat-making business with the help of her sewing mentor.

"Being here, she allows me to not be afraid of the machine, the fear factor is always there but you can break that cycle because it comes from where you came from," says Hubbard. "You're afraid to succeed, so here by getting on that machine, my fears are gone."

With the clothing and accessories created by Selby and her students, she often holds free fashion shows at domestic violence shelters. Her most recent show was in honor of her late mother.

"I just opened a fund in her name to give back to domestic violence women because I grew up seeing it in my family and I know this is what I have to do," says Selby.

"It's a place where you can come and get a skill," said Lawanna Britton Arroyo, a domestic violence survivor. "Come and meet other people who survived it and find some comradery among other people who have experienced something negative and find something positive in that."

So, for opening her sewing space to others and making a positive environment out of a negative situation, Carla Selby is the latest New Yorker of the Week.

For more information on Carla's Creative Workshop, call 1-718-230-0698.