DIY eyelets for toys: interesting ideas and manufacturing features

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:40

Handmade toys are in great demand among both children and adults. Masters and craftswomen put their soul into the characters they create, so every detail is important. They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. This correct remark can be applied with the same success to dolls or toys. How to make eyes with your own hands, this article will help you figure it out. Properly selected eyes will give the product the right mood and character. Therefore, considerable time is devoted to their selection.

Pros of making your own peephole

The world of fittings is rich in its variety of ready-made elements for new creations: spouts, eyes, eyelashes, mustaches. But all these products are focused on mass factory production. Undoubtedly, in such an assortment you can pick up the necessary parts. But do-it-yourself eyes for toys are cardinallyunique.

Important advantages of your DIY production will be the following:

• any material. You do not need to be attached to finished products, imagination and creativity will help make the toy unforgettable;
• the desired shape, because in stores the eyes are usually round or oval. But no one forbids the doll to make heart-shaped eyes;
• suitable color, which is also presented in a rather sparse assortment (yellow, blue, green, brown or black). Rarely seen other than the standard colors of the iris.

Choosing material for future eyes

In fact, in this matter, the main assistant is your unlimited imagination. After all, anything can be a material (or something that can be glued well). The main nuance is that the eyes are durable, and not torn in a day. More stringent quality requirements apply to children's toys: well glued or sewn, safe, not fragile. If you are considering a doll or toy that will stand on a shelf for beauty, then the choice will already be wider.

For an auxiliary push to your thoughts, you can list the most popular and used materials for the eye of toys (it’s not difficult to make them with your own hands):

• glass (transparent cabochons as base);
• epoxy resin cabochons as an alternative to glass;
• wooden elements (buttons, blanks of the desired shape and size);
• wool felted eyes;
• patterns made of leather orfelt;
• connected eyes;
• beads;
• nuts (great for steampunk or robot style);
• plastic or polymer clay.

Classic of the genre

The most common and common are glass eyes for toys. With your own hands you can create them in minutes

For manufacturing, you will need three types of components:

• glass cabochons of the right size and shape,
• base for attaching to a toy,
• materials for coloring the eyes.

You will need glue to connect the eye together. Usually experienced needlewomen advise "Crystal", superglue for shoes, glue gun. This is down to personal preference. The set of other tools will depend on the selected materials.

Mount is conveniently made from the base of stud earrings. It is easy to stick to the eye on one side and it will not be difficult to make a convenient loop on the other side. As another option, you can offer a ready-made eye to be glued to a toy or sewn on.

And finally, there was a choice of material or materials to color the eyes. In this case, the irrepressible imagination of the creator comes into play again. The easiest way is to print the picture and cut it out. It should be borne in mind that when washing the paper may be damaged. The second option is to draw the iris and pupil on the flat side of the cabochon. To do this, you can use paints (acrylic, oil, you can try gouache or any fairly thickpaint), nail polishes (according to reviews, rich colors are obtained), markers, felt-tip pens. Basically anything you can draw with.

Having prepared all the necessary tools, we start using glue to assemble glass eyes for toys with our own hands. There are a lot of ways to create them, as you can see.

Similarly, instead of glass cabochons, you can use their epoxy version. One of the advantages of this material is that the mold can be made by yourself. That is, you will no longer be tied to size, shape or bulge.

A distinctive feature of this type of peephole (made of glass or resin) is the volume of the detail and natural highlights. The doll or toy will be as if with a lively look.

For those who are for the environment

In the era of striving for natural materials, wooden buttons or wooden blanks of the desired shape and size (found in stores for creativity and needlework) will serve as an excellent option for a peephole. Add painting with paints, felt-tip pens (again, at your discretion, use everything that draws). For better protection from external factors, cover with a protective varnish. And the new toy looks at the world around with wooden eyes. For toys made of wood with your own hands, you can make many details: nose, brooches, buttons. When connecting two or more elements, your creation will look harmonious and complete.

Required tools:

• buttons or blanks made of wood,
• paints or markers,
• varnish to fix the picture,
• needle and thread (if the eyes will be sewn),
• glue (if the eyes will stick).

Felt, leather. What else will you add?

To make an eye for toys with your own hands from similar materials, you will need:

• scissors, nail scissors are best, as the details must be done carefully and usually small in size,
• glue,
• pieces of leather or felt of the desired colors (if there are no multi-colored paints, you can use paints).

You need to cut out three parts for each eye: sclera (the largest circle or oval, this is the white of the eye), iris (medium-sized part), pupil (the smallest circle, usually black, but this is your unique toy, so feel free to experiment).

The next step will be gluing your blanks in layers into a single structure. Then connect it with the toy.

It is worth noting that it is necessary to glue very carefully, especially the edges of the patterns. So that in the future the eyes do not become disheveled, glue the circles well around the perimeter.

Besides leather or felt, any heavy fabric can be used. Patterns connected in three layers give the eyes a convex shape, which looks voluminous and quite natural.

Button eyes

After all, that's what they are often called. And not in vain. After all, a variety of decorated buttons, buttons, beads act as an eye.

For example, beads connect well withpins with a round head. The metal needle at the end is rounded, holding the two pieces together. At first it may seem absurd to connect two balls together, but in practice it looks very original.

Buttons to give a resemblance to the eye can be painted with paints, paste rhinestones.

Such ideas are also relevant, so do not refuse to make eyes for toys with your own hands.

Get out hooks, knitting needles, threads

Knitted toys deserve special attention. Eyes for them can be done in several ways.

Firstly, tie voluminous balls to size, glue pupils from another material on them or embroider in a contrasting color.

Secondly, flat eye patterns are crocheted separately, after which they are attached to the toy (again, either glued or sewn on). This option is convenient in that an eye is immediately made from multi-colored threads. If a ready-made scheme is used, then the main thing is not to forget to make the details symmetrical.

Thirdly, you can use the technique of cross-stitching or stitching. You can achieve amazing results if you use multi-colored threads.

In this way, do-it-yourself eyes for knitted toys are created. A good option is that the same material is involved in the work - threads. Therefore, the creation will look holistic.

They are alive

We are talking about the pupils, which can move if the toy is shaken. There are ways to make them with your own hands, so as not to search instores.

To do this, you will need the following materials and tools:

• empty blister packs from pills (do not forget to wash them from medicines),
• as the pupil of a bead, half a pea (everything will depend on the desired size),
• glue,
• scissors,
• paper or cardboard for the main background of the eye (optionally white),
• paint.

The first step is to paint the pupil black (or whatever color you want) and let it dry.

Cut off two sections from the empty packaging of pills, into which we place the colored pupils.

Gently glue cardboard or paper on the background.

Now it remains only to carefully cut off the finished eyes with scissors and stick to the toy.

Everything is ready, you can shake your doll, her pupils will jump mischievously at the pace.