I’ve made lots of jackets, vests, pants, and random fluffy things over the years, but I rarely sew my own shirts. There’s no point making your own T-shirt, since a perfectly-finished shirt from some factory in the Far East costs less than the raw materials you’d buy here. Anyway, what’s the point? If I’m going to spend my time making a garment, there had better be something unusual about it.

Button-up dress shirts, on the other hand, are full of fiddly little details, way more complicated than they’re worth. I might make one once, just to prove I can, but it’ll never be as finely tailored as a factory model, and again: if I’m going to make it, there had better be something unique in the design that justifies the time.

But. I had the idea, a couple weeks ago, to draft up a pattern for the simple four-panel half-collared vest I keep including in my dancing ensembles, so I don’t have to re-design it every Saturday afternoon before a big costume party. Get the fit right once, eh? Once I got going, I realized I could easily make it a modular pattern, with optional sleeves, and hey presto – now I have a unique design for a practical shirt.

I’m wearing the first prototype to work today. Five buttons, short sleeves, funky grey print. It’s more casual than a traditional business shirt, but sharper-looking than a T-shirt or a polo. Construction is very simple – I went down a lot of blind alleys with this particular shirt, but now it’s done I could knock out another one in two or three hours. Sewing on the buttons is the most tedious part. It’s a foundation, really, on which I can improvise – just like that flared jeans pattern I got all dialed in a few years ago and which has become the starting point for almost every pair of pants I make.