Well, once again "what will look best" was more important than the ease of parts fabrication. Through dovetails would have been easier - the drawer face height and width taken from the drawer opening, the drawer sides' length taken from the drawer opening length. Easy and straight foreward. But the end grain of the poplar I had for the drawer sides wouldn't look very good showing on the faces of the drawers.
OK, so half blind dovetails it is. That poses a measuring problem as noted earlier, and I hate "measuring" - too many opportunities to misread or mismark. I prefer to "direst marked" parts.
Here's what I did.
And it worked! That's what I enjoy about woodworking - all the options available, all the puzzles that you have to solve.
On to the routing of the grooves for the drawer bottoms - easy right?