Crochet Sleeping Eyes
This crochet tutorial will show you how to make the sleeping eyes for crochet animal hats. It's actually pretty easy, even if you don't sew.
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Supplies you'll need:
STITCHES/ABBREVIATIONS CH: Chain (tutorial here)
HDC: Half Double Crochet
SC: Single Crochet
SL ST: Slip Stitch
Magic Circle (tutorial here)
First you'll need to make the white circles for the eyes. If your animal is white or if you want to give your animal colored eyes, make the whole circle in the color the eyes would be.
You can make any size circle. My favorite is a HDC circle because of how the stitches look. I do use SC when I need the eyes to be smaller. You can also adjust your hook size to get a different circle size. And I like to do two rounds of the circle, whichever stitch I use.
Small SC eyes: Begin with Magic Circle, CH 1. SC 8 in center of magic circle. Pull beginning yarn tail tight to close the circle. Join with SL ST in top of first SC. CH 1. SC 2 in same stitch and each stitch around (count=16). Join with SL ST in top of first SC. Finish off, leaving a long tail to be used to attach the eye to the hat. Weave in beginning yarn tail.
Medium HDC eyes: Begin with Magic Circle, CH 1. HDC 10 in center of magic circle. Pull beginning yarn tail tight to close the circle. Join with SL ST in top of first HDC. CH 1. HDC 2 in same stitch and each stitch around (count=20). Join with SL ST in top of first HDC. Finish off, leaving a long tail to be used to attach the eye to the hat. Weave in beginning yarn tail.
Large DC eyes: Begin with Magic Circle, CH 2. DC 12 in center of magic circle. Pull beginning yarn tail tight to close the circle. Join with SL ST in top of first DC. CH 1. DC 2 in same stitch and each stitch around (count=24). Join with SL ST in top of first DC. Finish off, leaving a long tail to be used to attach the eye to the hat. Weave in beginning yarn tail.
Cut a long piece of black yarn (or whatever color you want the eyelashes to be) about 24" long. Follow along with my video below about how and where to stitch the on eyelashes and they will come out perfect every time. Enjoy!
-Amanda
