Does making your own clothes ever actually cost less than buying them, or is that not the point

Going to disagree with the framing rather than the numbers. If money were the objective you would be doing overtime, not sewing, and per hour it is a terrible trade. What you are actually buying is a wardrobe with no compromises in it, and that is not available at any price on the high street for a lot of people. I stopped doing the maths when I noticed I wear my handmade trousers four times as often as anything I bought.

Shirts specifically are the worst possible test case. Interfacing, buttons, a collar stand, eight hours of your life, competing against a category the shops sell at a loss to get you in the door. Try the same comparison with a bra, a coat or anything in your size that is normally only sold in a fit you hate.

You save on the things the high street prices as special and lose on the things it prices as disposable. A plain t-shirt or a basic cotton shirt you will always lose on, because the factory buys the fabric for a fraction of what you pay per metre. A lined wool coat, a well fitted pair of trousers in a good fabric, anything in a size or a body shape the shops handle badly, those you win on and sometimes by a lot. My winter coat cost me about 95 in materials and its nearest equivalent in a shop was several times that.

The honest accounting includes the things people leave out. My first year of sewing cost me the machine, a walking foot, three sets of needles, a cutting mat, four patterns, and about 30 metres of fabric of which maybe 18 became something wearable. Nobody breaks even in year one. From year three onwards, when the pattern collection is reusable and the wadders are rarer, the per garment number gets genuinely competitive with mid-range shops.

Where I genuinely save is fabric sourcing, and it changed the sums entirely. Deadstock from a local supplier, remnant bins, ends of rolls, and occasionally a charity shop bedsheet in decent linen for a toile. I have not paid full retail per metre in two years and my average material cost per garment is under 25. The catch is you cannot start from a pattern and go looking for the fabric, you have to buy the good fabric when you see it and find the pattern later.