Made to order: A handknitted Hummel style bonnet in dark blue British wool, diced with red, white and green checks, and heavily brushed and fulled (felted) after knitting to create a thick dense warm bonnet suitable for re-enactment/costume wear, and also extremely popular with Highland dress. Particularly suitable for late eighteenth and early nineteeth century Highland regiments. The details of this hat have been based both on surviving examples and on portrait evidence.

These hats feature a fully adjustable headsize as there is a stong black grosgrain ribbon run inside the narrow self hemmed band to allow you to secure the bonnet at whatever size suits you. I am happy to make the bonnet a little larger or smaller or a different height if you need different proportions, just let me know (see also notes at bottom of this description).

The blue pictured in the photo is a repeatable shade allowing you to match your regiment across orders, but if you require a different shade I am very happy to make modifications. Please allow me two to three weeks to knit your cap.

Like many military style caps, this can be custom shaped to suit your tastes or head by dampening it and arranging to shape before allowing the cap to dry thoroughly.

The basic bonnet comes without a toorie. If you would like me to add a toorie (small pompom) to the top, please select the option below and let me know what colour you would like this making in. It adds just £1 to your order.

Please note, there is historically a lot of variation in surviving Hummel bonnets as well as in portrait evidence, and in recent months I've had a fair number of slight differences requested by various re-enactment regiments. I'm starting to track each regiment's hat preferences on a database to help ensure consistency between orders, but if you have ordered from me prior to July 2012 I may not have all the up to date information on file yet. It helps me hugely if you can tell me whether you want small or large dice (usually this means 28 or 34 squares around the hat on average sizes), how high the diced band should be (usually in small dice it comes out at 4-4.5cm and in large dice about 5-6cm over the whole band), how tall you would like your hat and how deep you would like the hem/edging below the band. Ususally, the band is knitted in, but I can make it hemmed to a cloth strip as an alternative if that better fits your regiment's requirements. I can also full the hat to a very solid finish, or leave it so that it is nice and firm but you can still tell its knitted. I want you to be happy with your hat, if, despite our best efforts, yours isnt a good match to others in your regiment, send it back with as much information as possible about what needs altering and we will remake it accordingly.