Karate Kid Headband: Tutorial

Today we’re going to keep it really simple. 

I’m going to show you how to make Daniel Larusso’s headband from The Karate Kid.  I think the correct term is a hachimaki.  You can purchase these for about $10.00 (shipped) online, but I figured they would be so easy to make, and you probably even have everything you need in your house already!

Let’s get started!

You’ll need:
-printed flower design, download HERE (I used my silhouette software to trace the image HERE).  You can resize the flower to make it bigger or smaller according to how large or small a headband you are making.  This size is good for about 4-9 year olds.  Ish.  :)
-black fabric or black acrylic paint
-paint brush
-8” x about 44” piece white fabric (I used cotton)
-pencil with an eraser in nearly new condition (so the sides aren’t worn down)

Fold the white piece of fabric in half lengthwise and crease the middle so you know where it is.

Center the flower underneath the fabric and trace with a pencil (or something that might erase better—I had a hard time getting my pencil marks off where the paint didn’t cover it).  Or you can trace it onto freezer paper and cut out the shape.

Place a sheet of paper underneath and start painting.  You can either free-hand it and like I did, or you could cut this shape out of freezer paper, iron the freezer paper on, and paint.  That would be easier and probably faster, but I thought it would be faster the way I did it.   It probably wasn’t.  Next, start marking with a pencil (starting about 1/2” away from the flower) every 1”, then another line 1” away from that.  My dots aren’t as close together as the real version, so you can make your dots closer if you’d like.

Dip your eraser in the black paint and start making dots over the pencil markings in the above picture (make sure there is paper beneath your fabric again).  I did 8 columns of dots on either side of the flower. 

Once the paint has dried, fold the short ends under 1/4”, then another 1/4” and sew.  The ends are now finished.  Almost done!

Now all you do is fold in half so the long ends match, and sew about a 1/4” seam down the whole long edge.

Iron the seam flat as picture below.

Turn right side out and you are done! 

Since my 8 year old received the 1984 version of Karate Kid for his birthday, he’s been really into Karate. 

And was happy to oblige for many, many pictures. “Mom!  Take a picture of me doing this move!”

How are your kids’ Halloween costumes coming along?  Heck, how are your costumes coming along?  Ours are all going nicely—I’m excited to share them with you this weekend!