Creating patterns in GIMP

Step 1.

Open the GIMP and go to File > New. When the new document dialog opens up insert the values shown below in the image to create a new image 8x8 pixels.

When the image is created it will be very small, use the magnifier to magnify the image right up until it is easy to work with.

Step 2.

Choose the pencil tool from the toolbox and choose the brush Circle(01) as shown in the picture below.

Now that you are ready to draw the pattern I will illustrate two simple pattern types, they are shown below.

For the Zigzag, draw the following with the pencil tool.

And for the stripey pattern draw the following.

Final Step:

Finally to make these images as patterns save them as stripey/zigzag .pat move the .pat file into your gimp patterns folder, on Windows 7 this will be located in C:\Users\<username>\.gimp-<ver>\patterns.

Go back to gimp click on the small arrow in the patterns tab outlined in the image below select refresh patterns.

And thats how you create and add patterns in GIMP.