How to embroider amigurumi eyes (the easy way!)

Would you like to learn how to embroider eyes on your amigurumi quickly and easily? If so, this blog post is for you!

In this photo crochet tutorial, you’ll learn an easy way to embroider eyes on your amigurumi.

This eye embroidery technique is an ideal replacement for plain black safety eyes as the result gives you a very similar aesthetic.

Let’s get started!

What you’ll need

For this tutorial, you’ll need the following materials to embroider your amigurumi eyes:

• Black embroidery thread or yarn (if you’ve opted for yarn, use either the same yarn weight your amigurumi was made in or something thinner)

• Tapestry needle

• 4 x pins to mark out your amigurumi eye placement

• Scissors

Easy amigurumi eye embroidery tutorial

In this easy amigurumi eye embroidery tutorial, I’m using photos of my amigurumi Kira the Koala as an example. This eye embroidery technique however can be used on any amigurumi.

I also recommend having your amigurumi fully assembled before attempting to embroider the eyes. This will help to ensure the amigurumi eyes end up in the right spot (see amigurumi top tips).

This simple amigurumi eye embroidery technique is best used as a substitute for safety eyes. If the crochet pattern you’re using has instructions for where the safety eyes should go, take note of the placement as this will help you figure out where your embroidered eyes should go.

Step 1: Use pins to indicate eye placement on your amigurumi

Get the four sewing pins ready as we’ll use these to map out where your amigurumi’s eyes will be placed. Insert two pins into the same spot the safety eyes should go (indicated by the crochet pattern you’re using). If the crochet pattern you’re using doesn’t have safety eye placement instructions, simply put two pins where you would like your eyes to be. You may need to try a few different spots until you find an eye position you’re happy with. For this example, let’s assume this eye placement is shown by the black pins ‘A’ and ‘B’ in the image below.

Using the remaining two pins (shown as red ‘D’ & ‘C’ in the image above), put these into a stitch directly above or below the pins you’ve just inserted into your amigurumi. Try both above or below with the second set of pins to determine which looks straighter and like a better eye positioning. As an example above, I’ve chosen to insert the second set of pins above the original pins.

Step 2: Thread your tapestry needle

Simply cut a long piece of your chosen black yarn or embroidery floss and thread it onto your tapestry needle. When cutting your yarn or thread, be aware that you will be using it to embroider both eyes and the length required will depend on the size of your amigurumi. When threading your needle, you will have one long yarn strand hanging down from your tapestry needle, and one shorter yarn strand.

Step 3: Get ready to start embroidering your amigurumi eyes

To get started, sew your tapestry needle and black embroidery thread/yarn into any stitch away from the eye pins. Bring your needle up through the closest ‘eye’ pin - in the case of our example this is in point A. Lastly, make sure you leave an embroidery tail coming out of your starting stitch.

Step 4: Embroider the first amigurumi eye

To embroider the first amigurumi eye, weave your needle into Point D and back through to Point A. Repeat this step approximately 7 times until the eye looks full and there are no gaps between your stitches.

Step 5: Get ready to embroider the second amigurumi eye

Once you’ve embroidered the first amigurumi eye, you need to move your needle and embroidery/yarn thread across to the second eye pins. To do this, do one last stitch in the first eye and instead of coming out through Point A like usual, bring your needle up through one of the stitches marked out for eye two. In this example, I chose Point C. This will get us in position to start embroidering the second amigurumi eye.

Step 6: Embroider the second amigurumi eye

To embroider the second eye, weave needle in Point B and out through Point C. Just like we did for the first amigurumi, repeat these steps approximately 7 times (the same amount of times as you did for the first eye) until the eye looks full (no gaps are appearing between the embroidering stitches).

For your last stitch, weave in to point B and back out through your starting stitch (where your starting embroidery tail is).

Step 7: Secure and hide the embroidery thread

To secure your embroidery thread, ensure both embroidery thread tails are coming out of the same stitch (this should be your starting stitch) and then use your hands to tie them together into a double knot.

To hide the tails, thread them back onto a tapestry needle. Then insert the needle into your starting stitch (this should be the stitch both embroidery tails are currently coming out from) and out through any other stitch nearby. Pull the thread tight and using scissors, cut embroidery thread close to the amigurumi body to hide.

Amigurumi eye embroidery complete!

And that’s your amigurumi eye embroidery complete! I told you it was a super simple technique. 😉

I hope this easy eye embroidery tutorial has helps you. Please do let me know in the comments below if it has, and feel free to share pictures of your embroidered amigurumi eyes on social media. I’d absolutely love to see them!

Until next time, happy crocheting,

Cilla x