Good news! ... well for me anyway....

Went home for the weekend and my mom looked at the sloper I had created in it's "so-far" state. She (with her whole life of experience) was really impressed and her only criticism was about the sleeve (which I had ascertained I did not have enough wearing ease yet) and the back seams weren't as smooth in the shoulders as they could have been after the alterations I had made and she pinned them for me how she would do them.