Leo's lion

Well, here's the lion costume for my nephew. First from the front:

Then the back:




This is the original:



Now, it says to cut 8" lengths for the mane, but as you can see, theirs fluffs up and mine just lies there. Do you suppose it would help if I trimmed it back from 4" to 2 or 3"?

It also says to sew snaps on the tabs. ? If you look at the original pattern, you can see that there's a shoulder cape kind of thing, and that it's fairly snug around the face, so I wonder if one snap is supposed to go under the chin and the other at where the points of the cape meet? (I'm actually thinking of using crocheted ties.)

Well. I hope they like it. I hope it sort of fits... He's not really going to like it, I think--it's going to be too hot--but they can put it on him for Halloween, and then give it to Goodwill or something.

Now on to baby girl sweaters.