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How to Make Whipstitch Eyes

The whipstitch is basically an easy stitch to "whip" together two edges. Because it's long and loose, however, and can be adapted to any spacing between stitches, the whipstitch is well suited to making eyelashes and brows for stuffed animals and rag dolls. Remove hard button eyes from toys for small children so they don't choke, and replace them with hand-embroidered eyes. Use hard-twisted pearl cotton floss, which doesn't fray even at three or four times the stitch length of other embroidery techniques, and work from the pupil outward.

Things You'll Need

Stuffed animal or rag doll, hard eyes removed
Sharp embroidery needle with large eye
Pearl cotton floss, Size 3, in black and "iris" color
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Thread the needle with black floss. Take one small stitch across the very center of the space where you removed an eye and draw the thread through until you can just tie together the remaining tail of the thread and the emerging needle end. Take another stitch across the first. Continue to stitch across, or wrap the thread around the needle several times and draw the needle downward at the center of the space and out under an edge, so the thread draws the wrapped part into a knot. Trim the ends of the thread as close to the toy's surface as possible.
- 2
  Rethread the needle with cotton in your chosen color for the irises. Take a tiny stitch along one edge of the pupil and tie the end to the needle end, close to the fabric. Insert your needle as far out from the pupil as you want the iris to reach and bring it up again at the edge of the pupil. Repeat this whipstitch around the pupil, keeping the stitches close together even at the outside edge. Fill any gaps between stitches in a second round, if necessary. Tie off and trim the ends.
- 3
  Thread the needle again with black thread. Beginning at the edge of the iris, just above the inside edge of the pupil, make outward-slanting stitches 1/16 to 1/8 inch apart, depending on the size of the toy and how thick you want the lashes. Keep the lower edge of the stitches ̵2; where they come up from inside ̵2; close to the iris, and beyond the iris choose a line extending about the width of the iris. It will be easier to fill in eyelashes later than to take out stitches that have become too thick. Tie off and clip the threads.
- 4
  Make shorter lashes in the same fashion below the eye, beginning at the outer edge of the pupil.
- 5
  Stitch eyebrows more thickly than the eyelashes, about as far above the lashes as the diameter of the iris and extending from the same distance toward the nose to a bit beyond the end of the lashes. Tie off the thread and clip the ends.
- 6
  Repeat these steps for the other eye.

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