1. It would be a very simple thing to make
2. It was the bottom layer of clothing, so it wouldn't be very seen if I screwed up
3. I don't have a linen shirt, and I figured I would need something that breathed, given the entire outfit.
The first thing I did was get 15 yds of muslin (aka very cheap-o cotton). I got it for less than a dollar a yard. It is a life-saver. This stuff allows you to test all your patterns, fix them as needed and try it on. You don't end up wasting good material, and it gives you an idea of how much fabric to buy.
I went and got a tanktop that I liked the look and fit off, laid it out on my muslin, and outlined it exactly. I used a water soluble marker, because I had it lying around. Then, Because I was going to use linen and my tank top material was a knit, I added an 1.5" border to my outline. I can always cut away fabric, I can't add to it. Step 3, pin that sucker together along the seams, parallel to the cuts and try it on. It will be very prickly, and hurt. Just grin and bear it. It felt decent enough, so I got some cheap-o cotton thread in bright red, and sewed along the seams I'd pinned. Then, I tried it on. There were a number of issues, including a neck that wasn't nearly big enough, random pouching along the back of my neck, hems that were too long in the back, and it hung weird on my boobs.
Issue 1: Stand in front of the mirror, and mark a neck that you like. I tend towards marking only one half of my pattern, so I have another side in case something doesn't go as planned.
Issue 2: Random pouching was because I have a slight hump to my back, and the neck was riding too high. Same as issue 1.
Issue 3: I live alone, so I grabbed some pins and roughly pinned where I wanted the back hem to be.
Issue 4: Bust darts. Very important. I went and found a top that had some, and just traced them onto my fabric, folding and pinning until I was happy. There are ways to actually measure how to do it:
http://www.sewingconnection.com/darts.html
http://www.sew4home.com/tips-resources/sewing-tips-tricks/how-make-dart-create-contours
Other possible issues:
It doesn't feel right. Then take it off and try to figure out what doesn't work.
Resulting pattern:
Now, I had a pattern from which to cut my shirt. I got some linen suiting, because it is sold in 53" wide yards. If I had gone with regular linen, I would have had to get more. As it stands, I got a yard of black linen suiting for the shirt. (Actually, I got three yards, but I'm crazy and making pants.)
Before I even tried to outline my pattern on my good fabric, I laundered, starched, and ironed it. The point of laundering it is to remove stiffeners, and if the fabric was going to shrink or stretch, I'd rather have it happen before I started cutting. The starching was because I had intended to do some embroidery on the my finished top. I've chosen not to do so, but it had an added benefit of making my fabric lie nice and neat while I traced out my pattern.
I like things symmetrical, so I folded my template in half, and used the side I had decided was the finished product in my outline. I also folded and pinned my fabric, and then pinned my pattern on top so nothing would move. Once that was done, it was simply a matter of cutting, pinning and sewing the result.
Since sewing it together, I have washed it to rid it of the starch, and plan to wash it a couple more times to soften the fabric up. Hopefully, I can use it for everyday wear.
I still need to add the binding, which will be made of the same fabric as the blue of my tabard, but it needs to be cut into bias tape before I can do that. The goal is for the bias tape to be 1" wide.
http://www.seasonedhomemaker.com/making-bias-tape/
The tutorial I used for my bias tape making.
Overall, everything came out rather well. If you have any questions, just leave a comment, and I'll try to answer as thoroughly as possible.
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