I know if you use a picture from the internet and make the pattern from that, you have to make it seamless. But if you're making your own pattern from scratch, do you need to use the same process for making it seamless?

It depends entirely on how you're making the pattern... if you're doing it in such a way that it will be seamless, well, then you're done with the seamlessness. If you're using some other method that won't make a seamless pattern, you'll have to either change your tactics or do some additional work to make it seamless.

Oh, alright I'm doing the stupid thing pixel by pixel (it's going to be a two channel pattern), so it'll be seamless when I'm done Thanks HP, I love your patterns

That's some serious dedication right there... Perhaps some of this might be of use to you? http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...amless_Textures

Thanks, I already looked at that. There just isn't a material that is like my mental image of this particular pattern, so I'm going to do this one pixel by pixel. I already got a good start, do you know if I can make a creators board for a half finished project? Just to see if I'm going the right direction. I might consider searching a bit harder for my other ideas, it's hard because I want something realistic, but when it's a real image, there isn't usually a consistent pattern because of the inability to be 100% accurate in anything handmade/stitched. :/
The sims in general is just frustrating me lately.

Sure, you can always post in Creator Feedback to get some opinions/tips.