Self taught frustration

  Being self taught in photoshop has it's drawbacks and frustrations.  When I first installed the program it sat on my computer for months unused.  I decided I wanted to try to make things after a couple of months in Second Life and began to watch tutorials and read the forums for all the tips I could find.  I am also grateful to the gurus on my friends list who put up with my endless questions.  There is one thing that bugs me, and I can't seem to find a fix for it.  When making a flexi skirt, let's say I want it to be a bit transparent.  Well then you have that damn alpha glitching, even when using a tga with no alpha or a png file.  So I'm throwing this out here, anyone find a way to work around this other than putting a solid prim underneath?