Quest for the perfect shirt

Thanks, to everyone who came up with ideas for the hooks and eyes problem in my last post... and to all who commiserated!  I tried extending the fly stitching into the waistband, and that helped a little bit but I think that if I sew hooks and eyes on a pant waistband in the future I should redraft it to allow for an inside button.

After the big coat project, I decided to sew something easier and more straight forward.  Do you also alternate your sewing?  I like to do a few easy things after sewing something hard (or something that just didn't work out), and a tailored shirt is one of my favorite things.  I just finished Burda 10-2009-105, which is similar to my favorite shirt (I made it again this winter in white stretch poplin) and I think I may have a contender for a perfect shirt.  Here's a comparison of 10-2009-105 (new shirt) and 09-2009-105 (favorite shirt):

10-2009-105 (new shirt)

• sleeves are more fitted
• body is fitted with darts
• collar is big and 70s-ish, not to my taste
• hem is super curved, but this isn't an issue

09-2009-105 (favorite shirt)

• fit is fairly casual but in a light fabric it doesn't matter
• collar is small and flattering

I think the natural solution is to substitute the collar from one to the other for the perfect shirt.

Here's a photo of the new shirt, and I will try to take a photo of me wearing it to post soon.  It's made from a men's shirting I bought from Gorgeous Fabrics (I think it's all gone, sorry!) and I sewed the buttonholes in a contrast thread.  I got the idea for that from Lee's Paul Smith shirts -- very sharp but still fun.  

Burda 10-2009-105 collar and cuff

Those buttonholes took forever to make because my machine kept choking up on them.  So I decided it was about time that I took my Singer sewing machine and Juki to a suburban repair shop to get fixed.  The Singer broke 3 years ago and I couldn't afford to fix it on my measly post doc salary... I bought my Janome for less than it would have cost to fix the Singer!  I figure now that I am a grownup with a grownup job, it's time to get my Singer fixed.  I am looking forward to having a more powerful machine and being able to use my buttonhole attachment to make fancy buttonholes again.  I actually don't miss serging so much, but it would be nice to have that working again as well.

I am thinking of my next project and have no fewer than 4 things on my mind to sew.  I am thinking of sewing another Vogue 1283 dress but in a size smaller to be more fitted, and I just bought striped wool jersey to either make a boatneck top like Jenny's, or the Burda twist top (Alison reminded me how good this looks in her recent blog entry), a suit jacket, or a fuchsia pair of skinnies.

Phew!

How to decide?  I guess I should pick something and start cutting.