Vest Modifications

Start with a black Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) shirt, readily available at any military surplus store and online. Use a seam ripper to take off the sleeves and collar; some people simply cut these off, but ripping out the seams makes for neater collar and arm holes. Fold over the seam pieces towards the inside of the vest at the neck and arms and zig-zag sew them down. The zig-zag seam works well with rip-stop nylon material.

Remove the flaps and buttons on the sides of the shirt as well as the buttons down the front.

For an added piece of screen accuracy, make a pocket on the vest back using the elbow reinforcement piece of the sleeve (if it is one piece, some BDU sleeves have 2 small pieces for reinforcement and these will not work for the back pocket).

Blue Workshirt Modifications

The recommended shirt is the Navy workshirt available at most military surplus stores or online. However, military sizes end at 17/18 neck size (XL).

As shown in the picture below, the Navy shirts come in a variety of shades so be sure to get 2 that match in color.

If you are larger than an XL, use a blue oxford button-down shirt.
These are readily available at Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

Take the shirt you will be wearing and set it aside. Using either a seam ripper or scissors, cut out the entire back panel of the second shirt. This is what you will use to make the "bib" for your shirt.

Use iron-on interfacing to give the cut piece some stiffness. Fold over the edges and sew the bib as a large rectangle.

Hold the bib against the shirt and center it so that the top button at the collar is covered by the bib. Pin and sew one side of the bib directly to the shirt. This will hold the bib more securely than velcro.

On the opposite side of the shirt, mark three spots for snaps and hand-sew them on to the bib and shirt. Again, this will hold the bib more securely than using velcro. I've had to redo some velcro'd shirt bibs, so I highly recommend using the snaps.

For additional holding power, remove the top button at the collar and sew in the loop part of a hook. Sew the hook onto the bib. The loop can be pushed through the button hole in the collar and attached to the bib with the hook. This holds the bib in the center and keeps it from drooping.

BDU/Cargo Pants

Pants require no modifications but be sure to get the correct color of BDU. The best match available is a color called "SWAT Gray". The only place I have found these pants is online at Barre's Army Navy Surplus.