tips for building with balaclavas?

I made my first four heads on a balaclava, and continued having the same problems with all of them.
Cut to big/small eye holes; muzzle always ended up pointing down; when eyes were installed they were to high up.

I thought the problem was my head stand, so I bulked it up to be the size of my head. It helped with gluing the parts down better, but I was left with the same problems in the end.

So on the head I'm curently working on I'm using a foam base, and finding I'm having almost as much trouble, plus I'm still confused about lining though I know how others say to do it. I like bigger styled heads, but I see my favorite markers make big heads on balaclavas.

So I may make my next head on a balaclava. Is there any tips on how to avoid the same problems I keep having?