Hamilton: An American Musical - King George III

This is the last thing I need to be doing, but I couldn’t resist, so for a few months now I’ve been picking away at the beginnings of a King George III from Hamilton: An American Musical. To go with it I’ll be making MouseMeat an interchangeable Hamilton and Washington (the basic uniforms are the same, just adding a hat/sash/epaulets for Washington). There are a few events I’d love to wear this for (next year’s Costume College and Labyrinth of Jareth, namely), but for now I’m just working casually at an easy pace with no deadline. So much is going into these, I think that’s the only way I’ll be able to afford the time and money anyway. For the same reason, I’ll be doing it in stages: first the accessories (crown, livery collar, chest star, garter), then the suit, then the cape (or maybe cape then suit, as the cape is easier overall).

The costume details vary a little between which year and show they’re from (different suit buttons, shirt lace, shoe buckles, crown details, etc.), but I mainly worked from these photos so those were the styles I went with, and when details conflicted I chose my favorite version.


I started with research strictly on the Broadway costume, but moving into historical research it didn’t take long to find some of what must have been the historical inspiration for the show’s pieces.
The whole costume is very spot-on to full-regalia King George.

The crown is clearly based on St. Edward’s Crown.

The livery collar, chest star, and garter are reminiscent of the insignia of the Order of the Garter and various other orders of chivalry.

The cape is a close match to King George III’s coronation robe and robes of state.

And the suit itself bears strong similarities to a few specific men’s suits of the period.


I’ve already started on the crown, livery collar, chest star, and garter, so I’ll recap those first and get caught up to in-progress work.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Have you found a place that has white spotted fur like that? Or are you planning on making it yourself?

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

OMG this is the BEST. I will keep tabs on this.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Subscribed! Been wanting to make a Hamilton/Washington myself.

I also have some pics and notes that I took last summer when I got to see Washington's actual uniform up-close at the Smithsonian. If you're interested, I'd be happy to share, but I doubt that it's anything you don't already know.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Cameroony002 said:

Have you found a place that has white spotted fur like that? Or are you planning on making it yourself?

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I have found a few that are similar (mostly kind of like this http://www.fabricempire.com/7-tone-spike-faux-fake-fur-white-black-fabric.aspx), but none that are quite right, so I'm making it myself. I've been shopping around and so far the best seem to be the white weasel fur and shaggy black fur from Fabric Empire.
http://www.fabricempire.com/faux-fur-fabric-long-pile-weasel-white-60-wide-sold-by-the-yard.aspx (It's more of a true white in person)
http://www.fabricempire.com/faux-fur-shaggy-black.aspx
They also do swatches, and to avoid buying a whole yard of the black I *think* that a few swatches would yield enough for the spots.

asavage said:

OMG this is the BEST. I will keep tabs on this.

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Thanks! I'm actually really glad people are interested in this.

NR16020 said:

Subscribed! Been wanting to make a Hamilton/Washington myself.

I also have some pics and notes that I took last summer when I got to see Washington's actual uniform up-close at the Smithsonian. If you're interested, I'd be happy to share, but I doubt that it's anything you don't already know.

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Thanks! You should definitely do a Ham/Washington.
I'd love to see any photos/notes you want to share. (Also, I'm jealous! I need to make it to the Smithsonian someday.) Since I'm working on King George first, I haven't done much research on the others beyond the show costumes yet, so another resource would be really helpful. And there's never too much research.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Subscribed! This show is close to my heart - here's a display we finished in Dec:

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=275235

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Awesome! Wow! I love this so much. Totally subscribed

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

keepcalmcostume said:

Thanks! You should definitely do a Ham/Washington.
I'd love to see any photos/notes you want to share. (Also, I'm jealous! I need to make it to the Smithsonian someday.) Since I'm working on King George first, I haven't done much research on the others beyond the show costumes yet, so another resource would be really helpful. And there's never too much research.

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https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B23jfr6N0fkIRThPVDdWSzM0Vk0?usp=sharing

Here's the link to a Google Drive folder with all of my pictures. Taken on an iPhone 6s in dim museum lighting, so you know how that goes. Not the best quality.
As for my notes:

-There are ten buttons down the length of the overcoat. I am a really bad judge of size, but if I had to guess, I'd say 1.5" diameter.
-There are fourteen buttons down the length of the vest. These are significantly smaller, maybe about 3/4" in diameter. The top four buttons on the vest are unbuttoned.
-There are six buttons on each cuff. They are arranged so that there are three on the left side of the cuff and three on the right, with none blocking the seam. These are the same size as the buttons on the overcoat.
-The back of the overcoat was impossible to see - the display case was up against a wall - but I think there were eight buttons on it. Three on each side and two in the middle. Same size as the rest of the buttons on the coat.
-The overcoat has two small buttons near the collar, presumably where good ol' G-Dubs would affix his cape.
-Where the pants meet the top of the boots, there are five buttons on the outside edge. These are the same size as the buttons on the vest.
-The overcoat is lined in white, with maybe a 1/2" border.

If you don't have one already, I'd definitely purchase or borrow a copy of Hamilton: The Revolution. Lots of great reference photos. Good read, too.

Good luck, and I can't wait to see the finished products!

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Westies14 said:

Subscribed! This show is close to my heart - here's a display we finished in Dec:

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=275235

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Thanks! I saw your thread a few weeks ago, and it's fantastic. I love that display case.

WrenW said:

Awesome! Wow! I love this so much. Totally subscribed

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Thanks! (Great little George reference you threw in there, too. )

NR16020 said:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B23jfr6N0fkIRThPVDdWSzM0Vk0?usp=sharing

Here's the link to a Google Drive folder with all of my pictures. Taken on an iPhone 6s in dim museum lighting, so you know how that goes. Not the best quality.
As for my notes:

-There are ten buttons down the length of the overcoat. I am a really bad judge of size, but if I had to guess, I'd say 1.5" diameter.
-There are fourteen buttons down the length of the vest. These are significantly smaller, maybe about 3/4" in diameter. The top four buttons on the vest are unbuttoned.
-There are six buttons on each cuff. They are arranged so that there are three on the left side of the cuff and three on the right, with none blocking the seam. These are the same size as the buttons on the overcoat.
-The back of the overcoat was impossible to see - the display case was up against a wall - but I think there were eight buttons on it. Three on each side and two in the middle. Same size as the rest of the buttons on the coat.
-The overcoat has two small buttons near the collar, presumably where good ol' G-Dubs would affix his cape.
-Where the pants meet the top of the boots, there are five buttons on the outside edge. These are the same size as the buttons on the vest.
-The overcoat is lined in white, with maybe a 1/2" border.

If you don't have one already, I'd definitely purchase or borrow a copy of Hamilton: The Revolution. Lots of great reference photos. Good read, too.

Good luck, and I can't wait to see the finished products!

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Wow! These notes are great. And for being taken on a phone, the photos look pretty good. Definitely some nice details there I can use. Thanks so much!

I do definitely need to get that book. It's been on my list for a while anyway, but now there's even more reason to have it.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Little recap on the work done so far. It's mostly small fiddly stuff right now.

The very first thing I bought was a large plastic “for rent” sign for the crown. I don’t remember the total dimensions, but the long edge was 24”. I wanted strength and flexibility, without the cost/hassle/weight of metal. To make a pattern, I found some decently high-res photos that allowed me to zoom in to about life-size, and from there I measured EVERYTHING: widths, heights, angles, distances between pieces, etc.


Using the measurements and the same photo references I drew a pattern for all the pieces and cut them from the plastic sign. The sheet wasn’t quite long enough for the length of the horizontal sections that go around the head, so I also patterned/cut some extensions for those pieces. I ended up with a bunch of 1” wide strips (two for the arched vertical strips, one for the horizontal strip, a shorter horizontal extension, and extras), the horizontal cross/fleur strip plus extension, and two 2.25” crosses for the top of the crown. All the edges and surfaces were sanded to remove burs and prep for glue/paint.


I've also ordered a TON of various beads and filigrees and gems and rhinestones that go all over the crown - 17 different kinds so far. As they've been arriving I've been doing some mockups to test sizing and get an idea of how it'll look. I'll go into more detail once I have them all and start gluing them on.


Testing various things and figuring out the logistics of assembly (mostly in what order) took a while, but last week I finally glued the cross extension in to the horizontal cross/fleur section. I’ve also finally figured out assembly on the cross and pearls for the top, so that’ll probably be next.


For most of the collar it was easy to find various metal jewelry-making pieces, but the eight-point star and Maltese cross in the center were more particular.


I patterned and cut those the same way and at the same time I was doing the crown pieces.


I did manage to find a die cut paper star that was the right size and shape, so I bought that both as a pattern to cut the plastic from and as a top layer to add in the detail (saving me the trouble of etching the plastic; essentially the plastic is just a thick reinforced backing). I didn’t take a photo of the star before I started assembling, but this is the seller’s photo of the whole sheet (I used the bottom left). It’s neat stuff.


The small little bits in the center were just guesstimated from the shapes in the reference photos, and all the layers were glued together. The raised edges on the cross are puff paint.


The medallions on his collar look sort of tiered, so I got large flat settings for the base, medium raised/detailed settings to go over that, and small settings for the red stones in the center. The first large settings I bought didn’t work (they were solid so punching holes for rings was a hassle), so I got replacements that had looped edges and better surface for gluing. The large/medium settings are attached and the stones are in their settings, but I’m still deciding whether or not to paint the settings to match the bows I’m making/painting, so for now the pieces are otherwise separate and partially taped.


I couldn't find any bow charms or jewelry pieces that looked right, so I'm shaping them by hand from twisted picture-hanging wire (the kind that comes in the little packages with screws and stuff). I did more measurements from the same zoomed-in crown/collar photo and drew out a pattern, and I laid the wire over that pattern as I shaped it. The loops and upper tails are one piece and the center tails are a separate piece, attached to each other with thin wire for now but once they’re all done I’ll remove the wire, glue the pieces, and then rewire a little more neatly/lightly.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

I did a bit more work on the crown last week (and now that the semester is over I'm hoping to have a bit more time to devote to this regularly, even with other projects). The two-piece plastic ball I bought for the top came with the wrong pieces (both sides had the solid edge, instead of one side solid and one side recessed so they fit together), so I glued a strip of felt to the inside of one half and then glued and smooshed (technical term) the other side on, plus added a little extra glue around the loop piece.

There’s a strip of trim that eventually goes on the outside that’ll help reinforce it too.

I figured out an assembly method and process for the cross at the top, so I finally put together all the little bits that go into that. I traced one of the cross prongs onto a scrap piece of the same plastic and cut it out with an extended section running out of the bottom. That little extension will eventually go into a slot in the plastic ball to secure them together. For the beads I measured out two pieces of wire: one to run horizontally with the side beads and pearls, and one to run vertically with the top bead.

The extension piece and wires are glued between the front and back cross pieces. I still need to sand down some of the edges so they’re all even, and if I need to I’ll fill in any gaps between them with more glue later. Fun fact: if you’re too cheap/lazy/busy to get clamps like I was (or I guess if you’re just working on something really small), bobby pins work well.

There ended up being a weird little soft spot on one side where the glue warped the plastic, but it’s not too noticeable and everything else seems fine (and I haven't had any other problems with the glue and plastic reacting badly), so I’ll probably just fill it in with a little Bondo before everything gets primed.

Around the brim, to help disguise the extension pieces and make a better even surface for other stuff to attach to, I cut and glued a little plastic piece in to the gap.

Then I glued the ball chain trim onto the back of the plain horizontal strip and started gluing the plain horizontal strip to the crown base. But I ran into some trouble at that point.

I had tested the plain strip around the crown earlier pre-trim and it sat correctly, but I hadn’t thought about the extra bulk the trim’s tape would add between the layers. The tape is about 1/2” wide so it only covers half of the plain plastic strip, so gluing the trim edge flush on the crown made a gap between the strip and crown at the base. Trying to force that gap closed made the plain strip shift or ripple, and the whole thing just didn’t want to go together. By then the trim was starting to peel off - I used hot glue for speed/ease, but the trim’s tape didn’t like it - so I pulled the strip off the crown and the trim off the strip, chucked the strip, and started over. At this point I just have the trim glued back to a new strip, with E6000 this time like I should have done in the first place. I think this time I’ll only worry about the back of the trim being flush with the crown, leave the gap at the base of the strips, and fill the gap with glue later if it needs it.

In the meantime I've also started on another piece of the costume. I’ve been working on the crown and livery collar since about January, but it’s a much longer haul. So I figured I’d also work on something smaller and easier that I could finish sooner: the star badge thing on the suit.

The star looks to be about palm-sized (3” for me), stitched all in silver except for four little squares in gold, and in the center a stone to match the ones on the livery collar (for my purposes, an 11mm red cabochon in a gold high-wall setting).

Because it worked well last time, I’m reusing the basic process from the shirt star on my TFA Rescue Cap. I did some layout sketches and notes to get an idea of the design, and then cut out a round of felt (for the base) and fabric (for the top) just big enough to fit the embroidery hoop.

Ideally I would have used red fabric, but I didn’t have any in my stash. What I *did* have was red fabric paint and cotton scraps so I just used that instead. Once that was dry and heat set, I drew on the design (partly traced from the collar’s similar eight-point star piece) and popped it in the hoop.

Some of the stitches, especially on the smaller inner star, look like *actual* embroidery stitches like a chain stitch, but I’m just doing a very basic in-and-out stitch for the sake of ease.

Hopefully I'll start embroidering in the next few days.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

Nice work so far!

For you guys planning a Washington, I made Jefferson a few months ago and I highly recomend this pattern:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008I8DLMU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I was in DC recently, and I didn't get to see Washington's uniform, but I did see another revolution-era uniform, plus the Franklin statue, and this pattern looks identical to both of those coats.

Here's my Jefferson! (because, honestly, I'll take any opportunity to show this one off :cool)

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

JupiterThdrbolt said:

Nice work so far!

For you guys planning a Washington, I made Jefferson a few months ago and I highly recomend this pattern:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008I8DLMU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I was in DC recently, and I didn't get to see Washington's uniform, but I did see another revolution-era uniform, plus the Franklin statue, and this pattern looks identical to both of those coats.

Here's my Jefferson! (because, honestly, I'll take any opportunity to show this one off :cool)
View attachment 731221

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Thanks!

I haven't decided on a pattern, but that's actually one I've been considering for both King George and Washington. I like JP Ryan in general but I don't know much about that specific pattern, so that's really helpful to have a recommendation.

Your Jefferson is fantastic!!! It looks so, so good. If you don't mind sharing, where did you get the shoes?

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

keepcalmcostume said:

Thanks!

I haven't decided on a pattern, but that's actually one I've been considering for both King George and Washington. I like JP Ryan in general but I don't know much about that specific pattern, so that's really helpful to have a recommendation.

Your Jefferson is fantastic!!! It looks so, so good. If you don't mind sharing, where did you get the shoes?

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Thanks! I'm happy to share any info These are the shoes, I 3D printed the buckles -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EX3NWG8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- but if you can wear men's sizes there are a million other more accurate options. These are pointed toes, I believe they all wear square toes in the show. These were the best I could find in my size, and thankfully nobody at the con called me out because none of them had obsessed over Jefferson's shoes quite like I had! LOL

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

JupiterThdrbolt said:

Thanks! I'm happy to share any info These are the shoes, I 3D printed the buckles -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EX3NWG8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- but if you can wear men's sizes there are a million other more accurate options. These are pointed toes, I believe they all wear square toes in the show. These were the best I could find in my size, and thankfully nobody at the con called me out because none of them had obsessed over Jefferson's shoes quite like I had! LOL

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Thanks for the link. Those shoes look like they work really well, and printing the buckles is a great idea. I haven't paid much attention to anyone else's shoes, but I know King George wears a rounded/pointed toe (I know what you mean about obsessing ), so something like that would work for what I'm doing. How was that JP Ryan coat pattern to work with? Did you have to do any serious alterations or was it pretty good as-is?

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

keepcalmcostume said:

Thanks for the link. Those shoes look like they work really well, and printing the buckles is a great idea. I haven't paid much attention to anyone else's shoes, but I know King George wears a rounded/pointed toe (I know what you mean about obsessing ), so something like that would work for what I'm doing. How was that JP Ryan coat pattern to work with? Did you have to do any serious alterations or was it pretty good as-is?

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From what I can tell, it looks like almost the entire male cast wears the same shoes. Look at the cabinet battle pics, where everyone is seated around Hamilton and Jefferson, and you see some good shoe reference. I Thought they might have been dance shoes, since it looks like the whole chorus wears them, but I couldn't find anything similar. FWIW, the ones I got were surprisingly comfortable, even with the pointed toes!

The coat pattern wasn't bad, but the instructions definitely assume you already know how to sew. It wasn't nearly as detailed as, say, McCalls and I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. The butt pleats and overlapping back vent were confusing and the whole thing was done in a screwy order, but otherwise the instructions were pretty straightforward. My fit alterations were pretty minimal. It's meant for a shoulders-back, chest-out posture, and I had no plans on ever closing it, so I didn't alter the chest at all. I did narrow the shoulders and shorten the sleeves and added interfacing to some places where it wasn't called for, like the pocket flaps. For the Jefferson-specific alterations I added about 10 inches to the length - I think it's meant to hit around the knee? - added those huge lapels, and completely changed the collar and sleeve cuffs. The gigantic pocket flaps were accurate to the pattern, and from what I saw in DC, historically accurate. I don't think you'll need to make any major mods for the war-era coats.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

This place has some nice patterns. I've only purchased Victorian ones, But they seem historically accurate.
https://reconstructinghistory.com/product-category/historic-patterns/18th-century-patterns/
Hope it helps.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

JupiterThdrbolt said:

From what I can tell, it looks like almost the entire male cast wears the same shoes. Look at the cabinet battle pics, where everyone is seated around Hamilton and Jefferson, and you see some good shoe reference. I Thought they might have been dance shoes, since it looks like the whole chorus wears them, but I couldn't find anything similar. FWIW, the ones I got were surprisingly comfortable, even with the pointed toes!

The coat pattern wasn't bad, but the instructions definitely assume you already know how to sew. It wasn't nearly as detailed as, say, McCalls and I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. The butt pleats and overlapping back vent were confusing and the whole thing was done in a screwy order, but otherwise the instructions were pretty straightforward. My fit alterations were pretty minimal. It's meant for a shoulders-back, chest-out posture, and I had no plans on ever closing it, so I didn't alter the chest at all. I did narrow the shoulders and shorten the sleeves and added interfacing to some places where it wasn't called for, like the pocket flaps. For the Jefferson-specific alterations I added about 10 inches to the length - I think it's meant to hit around the knee? - added those huge lapels, and completely changed the collar and sleeve cuffs. The gigantic pocket flaps were accurate to the pattern, and from what I saw in DC, historically accurate. I don't think you'll need to make any major mods for the war-era coats.

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You're right, all those shoes do look really similar if not identical. Bonus for the ones you got being comfortable. That's always a huge consideration for me.

The pattern actually sounds really good then. I have a decent sewing background so I'm pretty comfortable with wonky instructions as long as the pattern itself is reliable. I'd probably be doing more or less the same sizing alterations, so if that's all you had to do aside from your styling changes, that's really promising for the stuff I want to do with it. Thanks for all the help!

montysaurus said:

This place has some nice patterns. I've only purchased Victorian ones, But they seem historically accurate.
https://reconstructinghistory.com/product-category/historic-patterns/18th-century-patterns/
Hope it helps.

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Thanks for the link! I'm familiar with that brand so it's on my list, but I haven't actually bought anything from it so it's always nice to get recommendations from people who have.

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

keepcalmcostume said:

You're right, all those shoes do look really similar if not identical. Bonus for the ones you got being comfortable. That's always a huge consideration for me.

The pattern actually sounds really good then. I have a decent sewing background so I'm pretty comfortable with wonky instructions as long as the pattern itself is reliable. I'd probably be doing more or less the same sizing alterations, so if that's all you had to do aside from your styling changes, that's really promising for the stuff I want to do with it. Thanks for all the help!

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No problem! Good luck, I can't wait to see your final pics!

Re: Hamilton: An American Musical - King George and Hamilton/Washington

A few parts of this are stalled and I have other projects I've been working on, but there's a little bit of progress from the past few weeks.

I glued the trim to a new strip, with E6000 this time like I should have done in the first place, and then glued the strip back to the crown, only making the back of the trim tape flush with the crown and leaving a gap at the base of the strips. It seems to be holding okay so far, so I haven’t decided what if anything to fill in the gap with (any kind of glue that’s working on the plastic and worth using is too thick to get into the gap easily on its own, so I’m currently considering some glue-coated cardstock or chipboard that can just slide in and hold the glue against the plastic while it sets).


In the meantime, I finished the collar bows and started painting those, the star, and the medallions. I did a primer/base with Krylon Dual Superbond in black, a light coat of Ace Metallic in mirrored gold, a top coat of Krylon Premium Metallic in 18kt gold, and sealed with Krylon Crystal Clear. These aren't great photos so they do look better in person, but I’m still not happy with the finished result - the tone of the color is decent but it’s not nearly as shiny as I want. So I’m looking at some liquid leaf paints and waiting to do any more work on these until I can get the right bright brassy yellow gold.


I also started on the star embroidery. Not much there yet, but it's coming along nicely and it's been a really fun and relaxing thing to work on.