And now to something smaller!

I am going to try and design a smaller bear than I have ever made before.
A potential customer asked what is the smallest bear I can make.  Well, the smallest bear I have made to date is 5" as below - Timmy and Lester, available in my Etsy and Folksy shops

I have some sparse gold mohair, tiny joints and eyes which I bought years ago and never used so I have no excuse for attempting a true miniature bear.
I am not expecting to get much below 4" as stuffing/turning the pieces is really fiddly and hurts my slightly arthritic fingers.

Here are my thoughts on the project :-
Do I still give the tiny bear paw pads?  I have seen them both with and without, and must admit I prefer with, so will give it a try.
The nose cotton I have is probably a bit thick for a small nose so I will see if I can split it.
As I like the look of them I think I am going to try to make the bear with the same look as Timmy and Lester, but smaller obviously.
I have various colours in what is called miniature bear fabric (not mohair), but I prefer the shaggy look of my 5" bears so will go with the sparse pile mohair first to see how it looks.

My first job is to design a pattern.  I use old cereal boxes for drawing out my patterns - very Blue Peter'ish.
I don't want to design a completely different look to my larger bears so will have the 5" pattern handy to refer to if necessary.

Well, here goes, wish me luck, I will post the results (good or bad) tomorrow.