www.LaurasSewingStudio.com

April 2, 2007

What’s New

ON SALE this month - Geometrics

Guys love these designs

Illusions

Nutz ‘n Boltz

Nutz ‘n Boltz includes various sizes for mens collars, cuffs, pockets and anywhere you want a little something

Spring Sale Continues

On Lace Dreams Sophia and Anastasia dress patterns with lace yokes and hems. Only $19.95

Hints

Sharps container - In the medical community this is a familiar container. But we don’t usually think about this in our sewing rooms. Everytime you drop a broken pin or needle in the trash can, it can end up on the floor or stabbing through the trash bag giving you, someone you love, or the garbage collector a painful stick that can get infected and may need to be surgically removed.

Make a sharps container for your sewing room out of an old pill bottle. Some people like to use 35mm film containers. I like to use the bottles that vitamins come in with a flip top lid. A flip top lid allows you to open it with one hand while you hold tight to the broken needle in the other. The lid stays attached and It closes tight so if the bottle gets turned over it maintains its contents.

As an added measure tape the lid down securely and throw the whole bottle away when 1/2 full. Start a new bottle.

Scratchy Embroidery - Sometimes embroidery is just too scratchy on the backside when worn next to your skin. There are various products on the market you can apply to alleviate this problem. I use “Fusi-Knit” brand fusible tricot fabric.  This  product is light weight and soft next to your skin.

To apply, place the embrodery face down on a thick terry towel doubled. Cut a piece of Fusi-Knit a little larger than the design. Lay it over the design and steam fuse in place. No need to press hard Pressing hard can flatten the embrodiery - you don’t want that to happen. That’s all there is to it!

Keep a little on hand for this purpose. It comes in Black and White. Look for it at your local fabric/craft store.

Spring BellPull Project

Spring is here.  I used the color combination Pink Green and White to make this Spring Bell Pull. I used designs from our Hardangish Rainbows collection. Use medium to heavy weight fabric like Sonata linen or Monaco counted fabric from your local fabric or craft store.

The Bellpull is 7” wide and 24” long. I made it this width to fit the bellpull hanger I found at my local craft store.

A close up of the top portion

Below are diagrams of the bell pull divided to be sewn with a 6x10 hoop and 5x7 hoop. To make it using the 4x4 hoop, each design needs to be sew separately. The bottom tip is sewn with a 4x4 hoop regardless of what hoop is use for the rest of the layout.

Once the embroidery is sewn, use a water washable pen to draw the bellpull size 7” wide by 24” long. The top line should be 1 1/2” from the top of the top designs. The bottom is drawn in a point.

Trim the fabric to 9” wide (that’s a 1” seam allowance on each side.) Trim the top 1 1/2” above the top fold line. Trim the bottom  into a point with a 1 inch allowance on each side.

Fold the seam allowance to the backside and steam press in place. Fold under the raw edge to the fold area and pin in place.

To finish off the edges I used a blanket stitch type design to sew around both sides and the bottom point. I added a tassel to the point before sewing it down.

For the top, fold it under at the fold line. Press. Fold the raw edge under 1/2”. With thread that matches the fabric, straight stitch it down. This makes a sleeve that will fit onto the bellpull.

Enjoy!

Albert’s Cubicle

So, why do we care about the IP addresses of SPAMMERS?

Simply put, SPAM is not just junk mail cluttering your email inbox, stealing your time as you sift out the important pieces. SPAM is vandalism, assault, and theft wrapped into one neat little package and deposited into your inbox, several thousand times a day. However, just like Prohibition, it is a phenomena too large for even an organization the size of the US government to adequately address.

So what to do about SPAM? The short answer is invest in quality, reliable Internet Security software as recommended back in January. Often, these packages come with some default setting to assist in trimming your SPAM right away. They even come with a “learning mode” that ask if some questionable emails are really legitimate. Of course, in the early days of this training mode, it can feel like having a three year old in your lap each time you check your mail. But take heart, eventually the programs progress to teenagers, stop asking questions and start doing what they darn well please.

So what about the IP addresses of SPAMMERS? Unfortunately, most consumer-based Internet Security software is designed around identifying SPAM based on the email alias that you recognize as “hacker@spamworld.com”, or some variation thereof. Heartier SPAM filtering software identifies the offender by his IP address and learns or is taught to keep them away based on that IP address. Since the average PC user does not have a background in computer systems architecture and digital communications telephony, these programs tend to be run only by professional organizations. That does not mean you cannot use a SPAMMER's IP against him.

Taking the lesson from my column in Laura's January 28 newsletter, you know from where your favorite SPAMMER resides. He will have an address something like 217.226.125.3. Should you venture out to the website http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl and plugged that number in for a search, you would get something like the following.

OrgName:   RIPE Network Coordination Centre
OrgID:     RIPE
Address:   P.O. Box 10096
City:      Amsterdam
StateProv:
PostalCode: 1001EB
Country:   NL
ReferralServer: whois://whois.ripe.net:43
NetRange:  217.0.0.0 - 217.255.255.255
CIDR:      217.0.0.0/8
NetName:   217-RIPE
NetHandle: NET-217-0-0-0-1

RIPE is a clearing house for assigning IP addresses to businesses in Europe and the Middle East. A complaint to them about a SPAMMER might get a shrug. There are similar sites for Southeast Asia, the African continent, and Central and South America. The important information is two fold. First, the message originated, or was routed, from overseas - this assumes your reading this from some place other than Europe or the Middle East. Second, the NetRange value of 217.0.0.0 – 217.255.255.255 tells from what neighborhood. You could go to the RIPE website and find the company to whom the IP address block is assigned, but, again, it serves no purpose.

For our purposes, we use the firewall networking settings that are part of our Internet Security software to ensure that he never invites himself into you computer, at least not from that neighborhood. Go into your computer's firewall settings and find the Networking Settings. Find the list of Restricted addresses and Add to it the IP range as listed above from NetRange. Once you have added this range of IP addresses to you firewall's list of bad addresses, you have effectively blocked any of the nearly 17 million computers from that neighborhood from tinkering with your PC. Of course, there are still over 4 billion more addresses, meaning you would need to add another 255 such entries to eliminate everyone. However, eliminating everyone is not as important as eliminating the SPAMMERS.

We put security systems in our homes, key locks on our houses and automobiles, passcodes on our electronic files, and our important papers and possessions go into vaults and safety deposit boxes. None of these precautions are a guarantee against loss of theft. Rather they are exercises in self protection.  Configuring the your computer’s firewall is just another such exercise.