At the time, I was not very adventurous and relied more heavily on patterns. I found many tutorials to re-fashion regular ties into skinny ones, but I wanted to make one from scratch. I finally found this tutorial: Skinny Tie Pattern by See Kate Sew. The pattern can be used to make a square-ended tie, but I chose to stick with the classic style. If you use quilter's cotton, you will need to use interfacing like the instructions suggest. I might suggest using a heavier-weighted fabric if you want to avoid interfacing.
The tutorial was straight forward and easy to follow. It was a bit time consuming for me, but it may have been due to the fact that it was one of my earlier projects. I did not gift the tie as intended, but it was still fun to make. Also, you can shorten the length to make a woman's tie. Choose interesting prints and just have fun with it!