Hamilton sewing project.

Our friend Kevin asked for some help with his first contest, Mr. Club Changes.  Kevin is an actor and teaches at a local Fine Arts Academy. We attended two of his plays at local community theatres. He and his husband Chris enjoy going to Club Changes.  Kevin was inspired to enter the contest.  Kevin likes the new Musical Hamilton, I must admit, I was not familiar myself when I started the project.

I remembered Hamilton from the Tony Awards.  Kevin has chosen the character King George. The musical selection is King George who sings “You’ll Be Back” in the show. I asked him to send me a few pictures.  I was instantly over whelmed at the detail. What had I gotten myself into?  I generally do not make men’s costumes.  I told him I would call him after work that day. It was a Tuesday. The contest was on Saturday.  We spoke by phone and I got an idea of what he wanted. I told him yes, I could do it but it was short notice. I would have to start right away. I was able to get fabric that evening and found a selection of trims that might work.  Scott was helpful in helping me picking up on the details of the reference photographs. The costume needed to look authentic and professionally made. It would be a true challenge. I was pressed for time and I didn’t want to let Kevin down.

I found a pattern for a revolutionary war era costume.  I would change a few coat details but it could work. The costume would be three pieces. Coat. Vest and Pants. The shirt would need to be white and ruffles could be added. Kevin got out easy, he would need socks, shoes and wig/crown for the character. I would also have to find fabrics that would be regal. The costumes from Hamilton were red satin or possible silk. But on a budget I found a red suiting fabric that would work.  The trims would need to be wide.  I found some ivory woven trims and used gold fabric paint to transform them in to gold. After the jacket was completed, it would be painted with gold glitter fabric paint to give the look of gold threads. I worked in the coat first, as I knew it would be the most time consuming.  The sleeves were cuffed with large folded cuffs trimmed in more large gold painted trims.  I added stiffness to the cuff with interfacing.  The coat also had red buttons and gold ribbon loops on the opposite side of the front opening.  This was also mimicked on the sleeves as part of the decoration. The red and gold really made the costume take on a regal look.  I now had to make the vest and pants.

Rather than build a complete vest, I used a manufactured vest and refaced it with the same red fabric as the coat. I used fusible web spray adhesive to bond the fabrics together. I trimmed it with gold bias tape and top stitched the arm holes.  You have not lived until you have to sew new button holes over the top of existing button holes.  (That was supposed to be sarcastic.)  I used double fold bias tape was used to hide all the raw edges.  The same gold painted trim was added to the vest.

The pants were made by following the pattern. I added elastic inside the waist band so they would be easy to put on. I added 1 inch elastic to the calves, since the style is short pants.  This worked out well. 

I found white ruffles with red edges.  I created trapezoid shaped ascot, which was tied in the back with strips of bias tape.  I added ruffles two inches apart in rows across the ascot.  I used the same ruffles on the sleeves of a dress shirt. I added two rows sewn together along the inside and outside of the sleeve.  This ruffle would be showing past the cuff of the coat. The double rows added fullness.

The costume was finished on Saturday afternoon, and I was very pleased with it. I worked very hard on it.  I had never tried to make something like this. Kevin was pleased as well.  He did very well in the contest, and his talent was the highlight of the contest.  Needless to say, he won!