Pastie Exchange

Dear Constant Reader,

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m a Patron of Manuge et Toi Design, which is an amazing resource for burlesque costuming. I’ve learned so much over the years! If you want to up your costuming game, whether for burlesque or not, I highly, highly recommend subscribing.  It is also a lovely and supportive community. This past autumn Christina organized a pastie exchange, pairing participants up.

I checked the IG account of my partner, Aurora Rocket, and saw she had a touch of creepiness in her style. I’d been dying to try making planchette pasties and she seemed like the perfect victim person. 

As is my usual style, I made the pasties with a buckram base and fused a tan satin on to it. I used the duller side of the satin for more of a wood effect.

The designs were done in jet and crystal (Looking Glass Gems), honey (LUX Austrian Crystal), and peridot (PriceLess Crystal) rhinestones. I considered covering the entire surface in honey stones, but I was afraid of losing the impact of the eyes if the entire surface was sparkly.

These pasties were a stretch for me, in terms of shape, size, and decoration. And, being a little intimidated by the challenge, I procrastinated a bit and then realized I was going to be losing six days right before the deadline because I was going to London (woe is me!). I still managed to get them in the mail exactly on time.

Christina organized a live unboxing party on Zoom, so none of us could open our packages until the appointed time. It was hard to wait! I was super-nervous for Aurora to open the box, especially after I had seen so many beautiful and creative pasties made by others. I  needn’t have feared, she seemed delighted.

And I’ve made you wait long enough — here they are!

Planchette pasties

And what did I receive in return? These gorgeous blood drops! You can’t really tell from my photo, but those rhinestones are immaculately set. It’s such a beautiful job. I believe I’m going to replace the bat pasties I wear for “Moon Over Bourbon Street” with these lovelies.

Thank you, Aurora and Christina, and all the other pastie makers for brightening up my December!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 26 January 2026 at 12:15 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! Here’s your tip:

Before taking costumes to the dry cleaner, test a swatch.

Sometimes the dry cleaner seems like the best option to get a costume clean. However, the chemicals they use sometimes interact badly with the trimmings we use. I have heard stories of AB coating coming off rhinestones, glue loosened, and feathers left limp. I personally had some silvery trim that came back permanently dulled (it’s okay, it was only a little and I replaced it with something better).

So, test it first. Take a scrap of fabric from your costume (or something similar if you don’t have leftovers) and attach samples off all your decorations to it. Then take that to the dry cleaner and have them clean it. If everything remained intact and beautiful, you can take the real thing in. If not, you might want to try again elsewhere or figure out another method to clean your costume.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 12 December 2025 at 4:05 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! If you celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I hope it was warm and peaceful with people you care about. Here’s your tip (no pun intended… you’ll see)

If you’re wearing a bullet bra, pad the points of the cups.

This is how you get that iconic look. And without something to fill out the tips, they just look kind of sad and squishy. Look at the difference:

Unpadded points
No padding

Padded points
With cookiesBras modeled by Phyllis, our patient mannequin.

I believe wadded-up tissues are a time-honored tradition, but that’s not exactly the best way to get the right look. You can buy little pads or, for a perfect fit, make your own. Christina Manuge has a good tutorial on her Patreon.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 28 November 2025 at 11:15 am  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! After several miserably hot and humid days, I’m enjoying today’s very pleasant summer weather. I hope it’s nice where you are too.

Here’s your tip:

Use beading thread for beadwork.

I know that sounds obvious, but you would be surprised. 

No matter how smooth beads look, they’re still made of glass and a tiny nick or chip can cut right through regular sewing thread. Beading thread is made to resist that. In a pinch you can use dental floss. However, if you’re going to go through all the painstaking work of hand beading, I recommend using the right equipment.

My Patrons can learn more about beadwork by watching this tutorial.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 15 August 2025 at 4:49 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! It’s starting to feel like spring out there.

When working with glittery fabric, store the fabric and any resulting garments away from, well, everything else.

It will shed glitter, but by keeping it separated, with a storage box or bag, you can minimize the mess.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 28 March 2025 at 5:03 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! Here’s your tip!

Check your elastic before you sew with it.

Old elastic loses its, well, elasticity. Check your stash and make sure nothing has gotten crunchy or stretched out. If so, you should toss it. Get some fresh elastic so your garment has a long, useful life after you’ve gone to all the work of sewing it.

If this happens with a costume piece or even regular clothing, see if you can replace the elastic without completely deconstructing the item. If it has a casing, that makes an easy fix.

I make my g-strings in such a way that the elastic is incredibly easy to remove and replace (like 5 minutes easy). You too can learn how from my Little Costuming Book or Patreon-exclusive tutorial.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 14 March 2025 at 4:23 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! It’s so windy here at The Manor. It makes me terribly sympathetic to my Australian friends expecting Cyclone Alfred. Stay safe!

I’m currently testing a pattern for a designer and it made me think of this tip:

When working with interfacing, whether it’s fusible or not, make sure you catch it in the seam stitching to secure it, then trim away any excess to reduce bulk before you press the seam.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 7 March 2025 at 4:36 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday before Halloween!

Tomorrow we are at House of Hatchets in Hyannis. Wear your Halloween finery! Get tickets here!

On November 7th guest instructor Gaea Lady will be teaching a weighted veil workshop at B.A.B.E.!What is a weighted veil? Watch this…

Wouldn’t you like to learn to do that…? If you’re on our mailing list, you’ve got a discount code for the workshop (and if you’re not, sign up). 

Here’s your tip!

To customize your costumes, Frankenstein your sewing patterns.

I’m not talking about digging them up from graveyards in the dead of night — I mean stitching different parts together. If you’ve got a pattern for a gown with a neckline you like, but the sleeves aren’t doing it for you, take the sleeves from a different pattern.

You do want to make sure that wherever you are grafting pieces together, that they fit together correctly. Check that the piece on the donor pattern is the same size and shape when it’s going to join the garment as the one you’re replacing before before you cut anything. You might have to do a little cosmetic surgery to adjust one or the other. This is especially important with sleeveheads and armscyes — you want those curves to match.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 25 October 2024 at 4:49 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Halloween Under Bits

Dear Constant Reader,

This past Saturday was our first Halloween show. I may write about it in more detail later — this is just to show you my new shiny bits.

Last year, after a planned act failed to come together, I swapped in “Moon Over Bourbon Street”, a rather pretentious fan dance, a few days before the show. At the last minute, I realized I could reinforce the vampire theme with a pair of bat pasties. They were literally made the night before and, while they were cute, I wasn’t happy with them. They were too big and the minimal rhinestoning didn’t pop at all.

This year I planned ahead and made new bat pasties, using a template from Manuge et Toi.
Bat pasties
The rhinestones are mostly from Looking Glass Gems, with some black diamond Swarovskis Scratch had in his stash.

Next up, I needed a new g-string for “Satanic Panic” as the one I had been using was going to be appearing in “Bourbon Street”. I wanted it to be flame-themed to match the pasties* I had made for the act’s debut. I decided to challenge myself and make the g-string flame-shaped as well as colored.

Flame pasties & g-string

That g-string is heavy! I’m not sure I’ve ever stoned a garment other than pasties that solidly before. Fortunately, it stays in place pretty securely. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. The photo really doesn’t do the colors justice, especially the shifting shades of the phoenix rhinestones (the orange-ish stones).

As with the bats, the majority of the rhinestones are from Looking Glass Gems, except the citrine on the pasties which are Swarovski.

While I was working on the g-string, and really feeling on a roll, I went to visit my parents. I wanted to keep working, but my bottle of glue was too big to take on the plane. I grabbed one of my TSA-compliant toiletry containers and dumped in a hefty glop of Jewel Bond. Rhinestoning on a plane is a bit challenging, but at least I (and probably my seatmate) was entertained.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

*Although Manuge et Toi now has a flame pastie template, these pasties were made about a year before it was released. It would have made my life so much easier and my pastie design so much cleaner.

Published in: on 10 October 2024 at 3:35 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

It’s Friday! I almost forgot what day it was. I took this week off from work and teaching and other responsibilities and I totally lost track of time. Let’s see if I can come up with a tip for you…

When prewashing fabric you think is going to fray a lot, seam the two raw edges together with a zigzag stitch.

After the fabric has been washed and dried, cut off the stitching (preferably along a grainline for a clean, straight line) and press like usual.

Yes, you could zigzag each end separately, but doing it this way also keeps the fabric from twisting and knotting up on itself while tumbling around in the machines. That’s like two tips in one!

Have a great Labor Day weekend, everyone*!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

*In the US. The rest of you celebrated months ago.

Published in: on 30 August 2024 at 3:43 pm  Leave a Comment  
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