Hey, ya'll! After my giveaway with Stacey from Fresh Stitches, I noticed a lot of people commenting and saying how hard it was to find safety eyes and how scarce and rare certain sizes were to find. So I thought it would be nice if I compiled a list of shops where you can buy safety eyes at and cut out some of the searching for you! I know that a lot of people aren't able to find safety eyes locally, myself included. In fact, the only place I've ever been able to find them locally is at Hobby Lobby. And their selection is quite limited. Thus, most of the time I buy all my safety eyes online.
Not all safety eyes are created equal and you have to be careful you don't get the really cheap and flimsy kind. But for the most part, I can say that I've only gotten a few bad batches of eyes and will avoid those places in the future.
I've compiled a list here of where I usually buy my eyes from and a few other places worth checking out. All these shops have an excellent variety of sizes and you'll be able to find any common size and a lot of uncommon sizes and uncommon designs. All of these places ship worldwide so you won't have a problem there.
Etsy & Other Sites
Fresh Stitches - Based in the U.S. and ships worldwide. Fresh Stitches has a wide variety of eye sizes and specialty eyes. They also carry safety noses which are a fun detail to add to any ami. They even have little winking eyes
HERE! I'm totally going to try those out someday! All of their eyes have hard plastic backings - no metal - and the posts of the eye backs have ridges for extra security. Fresh Stitches is where I bought the 40mm eyes I used for my
Extreme Sloth and my
Extreme Fox (these particular eyes don't have ridges on the posts). Find the 40mm eyes
HERE. Fresh Stitches is also on Etsy
HERE if you prefer to buy from there.
6060 Eyes - Based in the U.S. and ships worldwide. This is another go-to eye shop for me! All of my cuddle-sized animals call for 15mm eyes so I buy that size there. The nice thing about 6060 Eyes is that you can buy your eyes in different quantities, so if you use a lot of one size eye you can buy a larger quantity of them for a cheaper price. For instance, you can purchase
5 pairs,
10 pairs, or
25 pairs of 15mm eyes with the 25 pairs being cheaper per set than the 5 or 10 pairs. This shop has SO many options that include noses and doll joints as well as eyes. These are the 15mm eyes I buy
HERE. They also sell
7.5mm eyes which I love. However, these particular ones have metal backs, and if you prefer plastic then see where I buy mine from Amazon below.
Snacksies Handicraft - Based in Singapore and ships worldwide. I've never actually bought eyes from this shop, but I have friends who have, and they say they're the best quality! This shop is a treasure box if you're looking for oddly sized eyes! They have
4.5 mm eyes,
5mm,
7mm, and
11mm, which are not at all mainstream. And if you're not sure what size you'd like, they have a
sample pack of all the sizes they offer in round solid black eyes (minus the 4.5 and 15mm.) They also have
oval safety eyes which is something I've been wanting to try for a while now and
safety noses. They carry 10mm eyes
HERE which are also difficult to find. I use that size for my
Little Meerkat pattern.
These are the best Etsy shops offering safety eyes that I've come across. I'd truly love to hear about your favorite shops, though, so feel free to list them in the comments!
Amazon
I also frequently buy my safety eyes on Amazon when necessary (when I need them fast), or if they're cheaper. Amazon is a very big website, though, so I've selected a few sizes that I buy and provided links below. The quality of these eyes is approved by me! Many of these offer free shipping if you're a Prime member.
6mm eyes - I used to go through this size like water when I was first learning to make amigurumi. I used them for everything!
7.5mm eyes - If you like a plastic backing over a metal one, these are the ones to buy. (I use this size for my
Rooster,
Baby Bee,
Baby Bear,
Baby Sloth, and
Baby Jellyfish patterns I've designed.)
9mm eyes (I use this size for my
Little Fox and
Nemo patterns plus MANY more I've never published.)
15mm eyes (I use this size for ALL my
cuddle-sized animals.)
15mm shank eyes (I use these for my
Cuddle-Sized Sloth pattern and my upcoming penguin pattern. They're also a nice cheap alternative to have on hand if you run out of regular safety eyes.)
18mm eyes - This is another hard to find size but these ones here are a great deal!
I hope you find this list helpful and are able to find the safety eyes you need!
Where do you buy your safety eyes? What size do you find hardest to find?
~Holly :)
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