NEW YORK (Reuters) - Adventurous ladies looking for new ways to flirt, here's a suggestion from New York's Museum of Sex -- go to a restaurant, repair to the bathroom, take off your panties and put them on your date's plate.

That was among the more unusual suggestions made late on Wednesday evening to about a dozen New York women and one man at the museum's first practical sex workshop, called "Loving You: Female Sexual Self-Esteem."

Despite living in a city with a reputation for plentiful sex -- a belief bolstered by the popular television show "Sex and the City (news - Y! TV)" -- some women at this event complained they can barely find the time for passionate clinches.

Some of the advice on offer recalled old-school deportment lessons -- a woman can project sexual confidence by exhibiting good posture -- while other suggestions were saucier.

Tips were given on an exercise regimen aimed at keeping pelvic muscles in good shape and a recommendation for making eye contact with one's partner during oral sex.

The street-savvy and tough-talking New York women at the workshop wanted to learn new sexual techniques and said they were ready to take matters into their own hands.

Seated in the museum's gift shop where fake fur-covered handcuffs and vibrators are sold, the keen students passed their instructor index cards, asking questions like "How can I get back a good sex drive from what is now an utter lack of desire?"

"Think of new ways to flirt with the person you've been with for a long time," said former stripper Ducky Doolittle, who has made a career of educating women about physical pleasures.

"I highly recommend going out to a restaurant and, after you order your food, go to the bathroom, take off your panties and then put them on his plate. It brings anticipation, and anticipation is such a sexy emotion."

Amid the laughs and gasps, one woman asked seriously: "Can you do that on a first date?"

Doolittle's answers often drew giggles, or knowing nods from the gathering, most of them in their twenties and early thirties.

"The number one question I get from New York women is how to fit sex into their lives. We are exhausted and stressed out," Doolittle said.

Sarah, 27 and single, said the city had yet to live up to its own hype. "There's a lot more sex going on in Iowa where you don't have a business dinner to go to every night."

The museum opened last October and is planning workshops for each of the next three months