How to turn black .tga's into clothes with fabric textures

OK, I know I am dense, but I feel like I have been reading these threads for days and now my head is spinning!!!

I've got the templates, no problem. I get the new layer, cut path, ect, etc. I get the saving as a .tga. Uploading - fine. The thing I can't seem to get my head round is that I always end up with a black template. This is fine if you only want to wear black for the rest of your life, but I have a secret desire to create something with pretty pink flowers on it. How on earth do you get the actual fabric texture onto the item of clothing you've just spent 3 hours creating?

I know I am probably missing something really simple. I have been using GIMP, if it helps.

Thanks muchly.

Joss

It's difficult to tell where you are stuck from the post. It sounds like you might have done a mask for the clothing (though the visible part would normally be white not black). If that's the case you can do "Layer - Add Layer Mask" - "Greyscale copy of Layer" with "Invert".

In the Layers dialog you should see a greyscale version of the layer that is now masking it to the part you want to paint on. Click on the left image of the layer to work on that rather than the mask and paint your pink flowers.

Once you have done you can "Apply Layer Mask" to convert it to an alpha channel for exporting.

If that's not it, it might help if you can post a picture of the layers dialog so we can see what's going on.

Yes, it's difficult to answer without knowing exactly what steps you have already taken, but my guess is that you're simply missing a layer in your PSD file, or you forgot to turn off the layer that you were using for a mask when you were creating your alpha channel. So, either be sure to add an active layer that has your fabric in it (the little "eye" icon is showing in the Layers palette) or turn off the mask layer (so its "eye" icon is not showing).