Help with large 3-d follow me eyes: More visibility

Hi peoples, I'm new. Enough stalking, more mingling.

Ok, I'm making my second attempt at making my cosplay outfit based on the character Ryo-ohki. I know Beastcub has already made a suit based on this character and I want to avoid copying off her style. (http://fursuit.livejournal.com/3192731.html)

Character:



I attempted to make the 3-D follow me eyes with foamies but I ran into a problem when it came to vision. Even though I made the pupil large enough for vision, I still had trouble seeing since the yellow parts/iris blocked my eyes. I think this is due to the size of the eyes and how close they were to my face (had a moving jaw so I needed it closer). I had to keep facing downward to get a good look around. Was especially hard when kids wanted to take pics with me......couldn't see them. So anyway.....

Here's the scary picture that I have of the eye. I destroyed the head because I hated it and wanted to try and remember what I did measurement wise. So all that's left is this one eye'd zombie thing. 


It's clear that I rushed through it.  I didn't care so much for the looks at the time since I left myself with 3 days to make the whole head.  I procrastinate a lot.  Majorly lazy. Now I'm trying to be serious about it.

So my questions are:
1) I know Beastcub used strainers for her eyes. I don't want to copy that, so is there another way to do these eyes in 3d with more visibility and no foamies?
2) Is there an alternative to the buckram fabric? As you can see in the picture, the foamies and buckram eventually warped.
3) Am I restricted to the whole circle eye thing for the 3d effect?  I'm kinda anal about the eyes not being the same shape as the character's for this effect. 

If this doesn't work out, then let me know if I need to just settle for 2d.   

Thanks