just a little question

with wich programs can i create clothing?...is there any free tool for it or do i need adobe?

Gimp is a free yet pretty powerful editor. http://www.gimp.org/

You should find plenty of Gimp tutorials for SL.

Any program that can save .jpg files can be used. But to make good quality clothes you'll also want the ability to save either .tga or .png files, so you can save clothing layes that include transparency.

Photoshop is the tool of choice for most clothing and texture artists, but is spendy. There is lots of support and advice available for Photoshop, and it has one of the most complete and useful sets of tools and functions.

Gimp is free, but is harder to learn to use. It can do almost anything you really need to do for clothing design, but is not designed to have an easy to use interface. Still, many people do use it, and many of the more in-depth tutorials and how-to articles also cover how to do tasks in Gimp

Other applications can certainly also be used. How well they work depends on what you are attempting, and your skill level.

No matter what tool you choose, learn to use the basic functioanlty well before expecting to dive in and make fancy clothing textures. As with any skill set, you need to learn the basics before attempting advanced activities.

Texture forum here has some more advice on making clothes, although their first line of defense is 'read all the tutorials.'

Also you can download the free CMFF templates that allow you to make the clothing fit properly. These work in Photoshop - I'm not sure if they work in other programmes.
Saying that is the easy bit - the next bit, as mentioned above, is to read the tutorials!! There's no short cut.

AvPainter is also useful and quite inexpensive.
It runs in Windows and is a SL specific tool that allows painting directly onto the avatar mesh, and sculpted prim meshes. You'll probably want to use it as one of your tools rather than the only one.
http://avpainter.osbyte.net/

And inspiration and creativity and sweat and hard work!
Good luck and welcome.

I could, honestly, use some startup tips myself. I get met by the stone wall of "read the tutorials" when I try to ask in the other forum.

I have Photoshop CS4, I can buy Sculpty Studio if necessary. What is the best way to go about things? Buy ready made sculpty attachments? Make my own? Where can I find truly full perm textures online - I know of some freebie texture places in-world (most do not have fabric I'd wear.) I'd also love to make my own textures, but I can't seem to figure how to make clean-looking prints in Photoshop. I can do gradients like a mofo!

Mermaid Diaries is a great resource although I wish the search aspect of it were easier. It's mainly a blog with advice strewn through it, and I guess I want a kindergarten site to start off with. Again her site really is great, though. I just find navigating it a bit difficult.

Lastly, are there downloads I can use to paint directly onto 3d, within Photoshop? Let's say I wanted to make a dress, or make a skin (ha, maybe in some months.)

Thanks for any tips at all.

GIMP can use Photoshop .psd files. No problem.

Paintshop Pro will also handle photoshop files. It's not free but it's a lot cheaper than photoshop and much easier to learn than Gimp.

I like Paint shop Pro sooo much better than Photoshop. It is so much more clear and intuitive and it has all the same basic functions.

I would still be using it if I could. Why won't they make a Mac one?