A few days ago I was experimenting with plaid or gingham patterns in Illustrator for a Christmas cartoon I was making. It was a fascinating experience to see how simple it was to make a basic plaid pattern and then with just the additions of a few lines of varied widths, it transformed into an intricate, woven plaid pattern that would do any textile maker proud.

Today I will show you how to make a very basic seamless plaid pattern in Illustrator in just one minute. I guarantee that you will be itching to make more and experiment once you make this. It can be quite addictive. It is also a wonderful way to build up your own personal design stash.

Step 1
In Illustrator, open a new document. With Stroke set to null and Fill set to a color of your choice, click on the Rectangle Tool and then on your artboard. In the box that opens opt for "1 inch" for both height and width.

Step 2
Go to Object>Transform>Transform Each. Just scale Horizontal Width to 50% and click on "Copy". Fill this rectangle with another color of your choice and set opacity to 50%.

Step 3
Making sure this new rectangle is selected, Go to Object>Transform>Rotate. Rotate by an angle of 90^o and click on "Copy". Set opacity of this horizontal rectangle to 20%.

Step 4
Select All[Cmd A in Mac/Ctrl A in PC]. Drag into the Swatch Palette. Now using this swatch as the "Fill", fill up any shape you want with the seamless pattern you just created.