I just finished with my first replica, Elmo. I used Mostro pattern from Projectpuppet.com . I bought the faux fur from Fabric Empire (
http://www.fabricempire.com/faux-fur-shaggy-red.aspx) , one yard is more than enough for Elmo. For the nose, I used 4 inches styrofoam ball and sculpted it with coarse sand paper and cover it with dyed Antron fleece. For the eyes, I bought 50mm Christmas ornaments from Amazon.com and then sprayed it with white spray paint and use black felt as pupils.