I was working on an up-coming project and needed to cut out a whole load of felt circles to make eyes. This can get fiddly, so I thought I’d share my favorite method for cutting tiny circles like this. It works for circles around 1/2 inch or less – anything larger and you can use this as a starting point, but you’ll need smooth off the edges more.
Cutting small circles
- First cut a square with sides the same diameter of the finished circle. You can measure it exactly or just eyeball it. It doesn’t have to be perfectly square.
- Cut off each of the corners to make an octagon, as in the picture below. Again, don’t worry about being exact.
- For very small circles (the black ones below are around 5mm (1/4″)), you’ll probably find this looks close enough to a circle. The white ones are a bit bigger, and need more trimming.
- If it still looks a little angular, cut off each of the corners again. Use a small pair of scissors and cut off just a tiny bit. You can always come back round and cut more off, but you can’t put it back on once you’ve cut!
- If you find that it looks more oval than round, you can try cutting off one of the ends to make it the right size and then cutting the corners again. However, often it’s just easier to cut another one from scratch.
This will work for any fabric, but in practice you’ll want something that doesn’t fray. Felt works particularly well as the edges are slightly fuzzy which helps round off any sharp angles.
To make pairs of eyes, like here, the important thing is to try to get a pair of similar size, rather than matching the exact size of a template. So start by cutting two squares the same size, and then work from there. The best way to get them similar sizes is start with a strip as in the first photo above. If you end up with a pair are very mismatched, it’s usually easier to cut another circle rather than try to trim one down – try for one the size of the larger.
I usually make a few more than I need and then pick the best ones. Out of these three, the first two are most similar:
Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m working on – lots of felt eyes coming up!
