We offer a space dedicated to give people the knowledge, tools, and support to see their ideas come to life, to make with their hands, to learn and enjoy the art of sewing.

Hastings Sewing Studio is the brainchild of Hastings resident Bettina D'Ascoli. Sewing has been part of Bettina’s life since her childhood days which she spent between sunny Miami and Caracas. In those days family dinner took place amid fabrics, patterns, needles, and threads.

In 2009 Bettina decided to combine her lifelong obsession with the experience of motherhood. Her first creation, the cape shirt, instantly became a must-have item among the preschoolers in her Brooklyn neighborhood. The cape shirt was soon sold at a local shops and featured at New York Magazine's Shop-A-Matic blog, fueling a vision that later materialized into her first experience as an entrepreneur, The House of Brooklyn Rascals (THBR).

As a designer, Bettina developed a signature style of bold colors, embracing the playful chaos of mixed prints, and always offering a generous range of motion. Her design vision is expressed in clothing that children love, full of color, and perhaps closer to toys or puzzle games than what us adults consider apparel.

Tales of little ones waiting in front of the washing machine for their favorite THBR garments were not uncommon among neighbors and friends. Those love stories inspired the idea of a space where anyone can learn to create the clothes and accessories they love, were children and teens could get in touch with making with their hands, and where adults could see their ideas come to life.