Plaid has been in fashion for quite a long time and its traditionally trendy period is in the winter, especially this year (2009). In this tutorial we are going to make a plaid fabric print in adobe illustrator cs4 in 8 easy steps.

Step 1.

Open the tutorial file in illustrator. (You still here?)

Step 2.

Drag a square with the Rectangle Tool, you can hold the Shift Key as you drag so you can make your square perfect. Try to make it  about 3 cm.

Step 3.

Use the Line Segment Tool and draw straight lines, you can hold shift as you draw your lines to make them straight. draw them beyond the box.

Step 4.

Open the pathfinder palette (Windows -> Pathfinder). You can select both the line and the box by dragging your mouse over it. Now press the divide button in the Pathfinder Palette.

Step 5.

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select each rectangle and give it the color you want.When all your rectangles are done, select the box and the lines, open the color palette and take out the stroke by selecting it and clicking none.

Step 6.

Select your box with the selection tool and when everything is selected, double click on the Rotate Tool, enter 90 degree and click copy.

Step 7.

Select the rectangle with the Selection Tool. Open the transparency Palette (Window -> Transparency) and set the opacity to 50% to create the plaid.

Step 8.

Select your plaid and drag it into the swatch Palette. Voila! You can now try your new plaid pattern by filling a large square with it.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and if you need any help or want to show your final result just drop some lines in the comments!