Safety Eye Placement Calculator

Where the spacing number comes from

Head circumference at the round where the eyes sit gives you the head's diameter (circumference ÷ π), which is the actual width you're placing eyes across. From there, spacing is set relative to the eye's own size rather than as a fixed number for every project, because a 6mm eye and a 20mm eye need very different gaps to look right on the same size head — this calculator sets the gap between the eyes' inner edges as a multiple of the eye diameter (half an eye-width for close-set, a full eye-width for standard, one and a half for wide-set), then adds the eye size back in to get the center-to-center distance you actually measure or count out to.

Why "standard" isn't always right

A tighter, close-set placement reads as more realistic and works well for animal amigurumi where the pattern is mimicking real proportions — puppies, bears, most animal faces have eyes set closer together relative to head width than a cartoon character does. Wide-set placement is the "big kawaii eyes" look common in cartoon-style amigurumi and tends to read as younger and cuter the further apart the eyes sit, up to a point where it starts looking cross-eyed from spacing them too far past the head's actual width. If a finished piece looks "off" in a way that's hard to name, eye spacing that doesn't match the intended style is a common, fixable cause.

Picking eye size for your project size

As a rough guide, 6–9mm eyes suit mini amigurumi under about 2 inches tall, 9–12mm suits small pieces in the 3–4 inch range, 12–15mm suits medium pieces around 4–6 inches, and 15mm and up suits anything larger — oversized eyes on a small head (or tiny eyes on a large one) is one of the more common reasons a finished amigurumi doesn't match the pattern photo, even when the stitch counts were followed exactly. If this calculator flags your eyes as too wide for the head, sizing down is usually the fix rather than fighting the spacing.