The Burlesque Diary, Part 2

Today was arts and crafts day. The lovely Lily put together little ziplock bags of materials, and brought plenty of scissors and glue for the class - pastie making. Not the meat pie pastie - think nipple covers.

Most public decency laws require an absence of complete nudity to be legal, hence, pasties and g-strings. According to Lily, Detroit strip artists are relatively modest, wearing full rear-coverage panties. In Grand Rapids, the center of the Dutch Reformed Church in Michigan, thongs rule (less restrictive ordinances.) Who'd have thought?

Any way, it's a very simple process. Take some cross-stitch canvas, and cut out a circle that covers your own nipple and aureola (I retired to the Ladies to be absolutely sure everything important was covered.) Cut to the center, make a judicious fold (pancakes vs party hats) and glue. After making this base, take a yard or so of sequins and the bottle of Fabri-tac glue, and glue the sequins around in overlapping rows.

It took on almost a Zen-like rhythm - tap on glue, tamp down sequins, mold with thumbs, discuss life. One adventurous lady went for the two-toned look - red and black spirals. At the end, they looked like luscious lollipops. One went with pewter gray - very sophisticated - and another snagged the holographic red ones - wow. They weren't merely sparkly red, they glowed. Note to self: holographic sequins rock.

Lily discussed variations as we tacked and pressed - she wanted to pass on a skill, not a party favor. If you cut a little hole in the middle and thread a tassel through before glueing and decorating, you will have tassel pasties. If you go to the fishing section of any big box store and find a lure thingy and attach it to the back of the tassel before threading through the base, you will have twirly tassels (hello, WalMart). We all brain-stormed on future pastie designs. Being highly-caffeineated, my taste ran toward Hello Kitty or skulls-and-crossbones for a pirate theme, but that was before I saw the holographic sequins.

Attaching the little darlings to les girls is actually easy - you can do double-sided Hollywood tape from Jo-Ann Fabrics, or toupee tape from Sally's Beauty Supply. Toupee tapes wins (it's cheaper!)

Moi? I went with a mauve pink. I took a photo, and they look like big buttons or tiny party hats (no, I can't get it into this post. Rats. No big deal - they were just laying in the palm of my hand.) And yes, I look BAD in my dainty mauve pasties. Very, very bad.

Next week - dresses and feather boas.