Will take better pics tomorrow but my only note for the seaming section is to maybe describe how you are sewing through the four layers, like weaving in and out or going under and around, if that makes sense. Based on the pics it appears you might be weaving in and out through the chains/loops, but I‘m not totally sure. Speaking of pics, they‘re great and go a long way to helping make this pattern more accessible and easy to follow, so well done.

22.5”

Think I just need a solid hour of crochet time to finish this up

All looks good! Finally getting a chunk of time to work on this, will hopefully finish today - sorry for the delay!

Wondering if instead of photos being separate from steps you might have them embedded on each one with the written so like 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d with their corresponding instructions for the stitch pattern. Might improve ease of following.