My base pattern was Simplicity 9210, a "design your own blouse" pattern; I used the short eased sleeves option.

The trickiest part of the shirt were the bellows pockets (aka cargo pockets) on the sleeves, because I had never sewn any before. None of my "how to" sewing books had instructions, and it wasn't until I found a reference to them as bellows pockets in The Weekend Sewer's Guide to Pants and Skirts (a book that I never really have used, since most of the projects included don't appeal to me) that I could find instructions online. A quick search turned up step-by-step illustrated instructions from the DIY Network website: http://www.diynet.com/diy/na_sewing/article/0,2025,DIY_14144_2277019,00.html. I pretty much followed the instructions exactly, with the exception of how they were attached to my garment. Instead of topstitching the pockets to my sleeves, I sewed them each to squares of fabric the size of the finished pocket plus seam allowance, and then topstiched around the edges. About two inches on each side of the pocket at the top got sewn down to the sleeve, leaving the rest of the pocket hanging free.

The sleeves were modified slightly from the pattern. Instead of cutting them at the pattern length for short sleeves, I added a few extra inches, so that the sleeves came to the crook of my elbow. I then figured out how deep a cuff I wanted, and cut two rectangles from selvedge edges the right width and depth, plus seam allowances. After sewing the short ends together, I attached the "cuffs" to the bottoms of the sleeves so that the selvedge edge became the top edge and all of the seam allowances were turned to the inside and didn't show. Once the cuffs are turned up, the pockets overlap on top.

Everything else—collar, front & back, buttons & buttonholes—followed the pattern.