i'm just going to do this right now, because i'm afraid i'm gonna forget it again if i wait! and i'm going to answer this publicly since it'll probably be helpful to some other people too!
ok so the lion i made has a simple 2 sides and a gusset construction
except i elongated the nose so i could make the end of the gusset circular, to give it the wide, chunky bridge of the nose
as far as the mane goes, i originally wanted to do a sewn in mane, so i cut the face piece in half, and the other half was the mane, pattern looking something like this
but i made the mane too skinny, so he looked super weird. so there are actually 2 layers of mane on that guy, the original try, and then i made like.. a fur hood that i slipped over his face and hand sewed on, and i stuffed it a bit to plump up the mane. i would suggest that route because you have more control over the shape of the mane, and it's easier to remove and edit. so like. make a female lion, and then make a fur hood with ear holes
also i did a little bit of thread sculpting at the eyes. i anchored some thread at the eye and pulled it back, like the red line above, so the eyes sink in a little bit.
and obviously these are not real patterns, they will not work too well if you print them out and try to fit them together haha. i just scribbled them out to illustrate what i mean :B
