Two Gimp texture questions (very specific)

I have tried to find the answers in this forum myself, but I cannot seem to find a clear answer, so my apologies please if these questions are dumb.

1. I need step-by-step instructions on how to use a texture originating from SL (full-permission textures) in Gimp. A friend walked me through a process where I saved the texture to my computer, then saved it as a .pat file in this path: c:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\patterns\textureIwant2use.pat. Then she said that I could use the Fill tool to select this pattern for use on my clothing template. The texture does not show up in the Fill tool pattern list, and I don't know why. One thing I DO notice is that the other patterns in that folder are all 6-72kb....while the texture I added is 769kb. How do I make it smaller, if that is the problem? I worked around this by copy/pasting the texture as new layers, but I had to do this three times to get it to cover the template.....and that is not how my friend described it.

2. Regarding wrinkles. I'm struggling to understand the tutorials. They are way over my head, but I do try to follow directions. This thread (/109/9a/184380/1.html) describes a process that I am trying to follow, but I am stuck at a particular spot. I will try my best to explain how I am stuck by pairing the directions in that thread with what I did to follow them:

"New layer, Color Burn blending option"
I go to the layer window and make a new layer. I did not see an option in the drop-down that specifically says "Color Burn"....so I just picked "Burn." (I also later tried again with "Overlay" which I read in a Robin Sojourner thread on the same subject.)

"Small, soft brush using 50% gray (on your color palette if you hover the cursor over the color it will give you the name of the color)..should be the last gray in the top row."
It took me awhile to find anything called a color palette, but I finally found a drop-down list with about two dozen palettes. I picked one that looked sorta basic and found on it a 50% gray, which I selected and which then became the "foreground" color. I also wasn't sure what, exactly, "small, soft brush" means....but I picked one from the drop-down that was a fuzzy circle, a few sizes up from the smallest of the available fuzzy circles.

"Draw a line where you want the wrinkle to be (this will be the shadow part of the wrinkle)"
Sounds soooo simple, but here is where I am stuck. I draw the line (place cursor, left click/hold mouse and drag).....I see nothing. No gray, nothing at all. I turned off the little eye next to all the other layers.....still nothing. No line. So I read other directions on wrinkle making and tried making this layer an "overlay" instead of a "burn" but still seem unable to make any sort of gray line.

Is anyone able to help me? What am I doing wrong? Thanks for whatever insight you may have.

I am willing to help you with this. Email the files you are working with to

[email]lee.ponzu@yahoo.com[/email]

and I will take a look at about 6pm SL time when I get home from work.

Are you using Gimp 2.2?

wish us luck ...

Yes, I'm using "The GIMP 2.2"

When you say to send the files, you mean the .xcf file of the blouse I'm working on and the texture file I wanted to use? I'll assume that's what you mean. If you wanted something different, let me know.

On the texture file, I'll send both the original texture file (a Torley Linden freebie) and the .pat version that I tried to put in the patterns folder.

EDIT:

I just sent the email with the attached files. Thanks again.

My method for turning an image file into a pattern is,
Open the image file in the Gimp.
Select -> All
Script-Fu -> Selection -> To Pattern

Give the pattern a name if you intend to re-use it or keep it as 'My pattern' default if you just want to use it for a little bit.

Save it directly into the pattern directory might work if your directory name matches your actual gimp install location, but a path with '2.0' in it when you are running '2.2' is not likely to match. I haven't really looked into it though as to what file formats are acceptable as patterns.

For burning ; you must have the layer you want to draw on selected, you must have the region of the image you want to burn selected, and your burn color must be darker than the color you are drawing on.

Thank you for the help, especially Lee who has spent considerable time in emails with me. It turns out the second issue that I mentioned had to do with me not noticing I had something else selected when I was trying to draw/paint/burn, etc... Once I discovered the "select none" option up on one of the menus, I was back in action, wheee!