"Burlesque is the Accidental Stripper" -Leda Petit

Today I'm going to tell you how to make your very own feather bustle for around $20 NZ.
This is a really simple project which can easily be done in an afternoon and it makes a very elegant addition to any burlesque/masquerade costume.

This is essentially what the finished product will look like. Yours may of course be a different colour/shape but that's up to you! I went with red because my dress was red, makes sense really.

What you will need:
Some cellotape.
Hot glue gun loaded with glue.
6 Ostrich feathers around 30 cms in length.I bought mine from an ostrich farm.
One jaw style hair clip with some form of decoration, the flower on mine worked well.
A large safety pin or kilt pin (the kind they use to keep the kilt closed)
Apologies for bad quality, took this shot on my cellphone.

The first thing you need to do is separate the hair clip, they come as two pieces connected by a spring but you only need one side.
Hold onto the other side and the spring, you can re-attached them later and make an outrageous head piece.

The first thing you need to do is line your feathers up between the jaws of the clip which looks something like this, I had to draw it as I forgot to take a picture.

Tape the stems in place and hold it against your butt to see if the feathers are in the right place, if not, adjust till you're happy with the placement. You may want to play around with layers of different colours.

Once you are happy with your feather placement, time to glue them in place.You may choose to go with the slimmer look like my finished product or wider as above. 

Don't be stingy with the glue, use plenty and make sure you hold the feathers in place while the glue dries, otherwise they pull away from the clip and wont be very stable.

Once the feathers are secured in place, time to attach your bustle!

For this step you will need your safety/kilt pin. You're going to slide it through the holes in the clip which were originally used for the spring. The pin needs to be quite large in order to reach all the way through.

Again, I forgot to take a picture so here is a rough drawing of what I mean:

When you actually put it on your dress/costume you will need to slide the pin through the first hole, then through your clothing, then through the second hole.

As for where to place you bustle, I find about an inch above where your butt crack (pardon the terminology) ends. Basically, where the curve of your bottom ends and the curve of your back begins, this makes the feathers stick out slightly instead of curling into your body, it also makes them sway and bounce as you walk.

Again, the finished product should look something like this:

Here is the lovely Leda Petit displaying her $300 feather bustle made by Wellington corsetier, Flo Foxworthy

Enjoy your new Burlesque feather bustle! Don't be afraid to get a little cheeky with it, shake your tailfeathers!