{This is the third post in a series about our transformation from totally-not-fashion-designers, to convincing a professional pattern-maker that we graduated from fashion school. Catch up by reading Part I and Part II.}

Croqui is French. I think it means “lifesaver.” A croqui is an outline of a naked woman. It’s a tool, for newbies like us, to trace and practice sketching our clothes onto.

Searching croqui under Google Images gives designers a million different options. There are baby croquis. Plus-sized croquis. Impossibly skinny croquis. Busty croquis. Whatever type of person you’re designing for, there’s a croqui to match.

When we started designing our line we printed out all the croquis we could get our hands on and began drawing. First, we made a sample “look book” of all our 100 clothing combinations. When we finished, we had two pages full of 3-inch-tall women, wearing our line.

Shannon started calling them “sassy little ladies.” The process was fun, and made us feel legitimate.

Next, came the phase we both dreaded: spec sheets.

A spec sheet is a piece of paper with every minute detail of a garment. Every measurement, every button count, every zipper length. We needed to figure out what size hems we wanted, and what color thread to use for the seams.

We had to have technical drawings of our clothing as well. Close-up. Side view. Front. Back. And for measurements, we took all of our favorite brands, Googled their sizing charts, and found an average. Plus, we measured ourselves with a 25 cent measuring tape from the nearest bodegona. We guessed our way through it.

We frantically drew up the designs before our first meeting in Nicaragua, attempting to show how each piece can convert into something else. We traced everything with sharpies, took photos of them, (as scanners are a hard find in Managua), and formatted everything with MS Word.

We were proud of our attempt as we walked into our first meeting with Sonia, a seasoned pattern-maker. But we didn’t think she’d actually believe we were real designers. She praised our designs at length, and wanted to know where we had studied fashion.

For us, this is just one more example of the truisms we’ve been learning in this process:

1. You can learn enough about anything to pass.
2. Expertise is overrated.
3. People will always help you along the way.
4. Determination is the key to success.