Last step — I had a finished blouse, but the pleasure of making it yourself is that you can customize it. And I happened to have a piece of coordinating trim of the right length, so I ended up adding that to the neck of the blouse, and I love it. I had a slightly medieval look to it, I think.
I ran out of time to do anything more, but if I’d had the supplies on hand, I might’ve added a cord across the back of the blouse, with tassels or some such; it’s a pretty classic sari blouse finishing detail, and would’ve been fun — maybe next time.
But mostly, I’m very happy with this — despite the mistakes and the often decidedly unprofessional finishing on the inside, I ended up with a beautiful sari blouse that I’m comfortable wearing to a wedding.
Now, this was not remotely cost-effective, I should note — a tailor up on Devon in Chicago would charge around $50-$60 to sew one of these. And since I bought this sari from Utsav in India, I could’ve given them my measurements and they would’ve custom-stitched the blouse to them, I think for about $20. Given how many hours this took me (4-5?), I’m clearly not saving any money here.
But it’s very satisfying being able to do this, and running to Devon and back is two hours out of my day, and most importantly, if I keep doing this, I’ll get faster. 
I’ll probably post some more photos of me in the finished outfit after the wedding later this week!
Blouse pattern (this is the 4-dart midriff variation): https://www.etsy.com/…/saree-blouses-round-deep…
Sari purchased from Utsav ($55, but on sale for $46.75, and they’re currently running a sale with free ready-to-wear blouse stitching (or $24 for custom blouse stitching to your measurements) AND free shipping, so you can duplicate most of this look without knowing how to sew at all….) — https://www.utsavfashion.com/…/woven-art-linen-silk…
