How I messed up Simplicity 3673 view A/B

I spent 10 hours sewing today and 1 hour cutting and marking yesterday.
I messed up Simplicity 3673 view A/B. 
I knew something was up while making the garment, but didn't know what til almost 6pm today, when I was almost up to the hemming stage (still unhemmed).

Let's see if you guys can figure it out!
Oh and I would totally style this differently.  I want to make/buy a shirt that goes with this better.
I made the length of view B with the sort of belt-like thing of view A (I haven't made that little bow thing; am still on the fence about that).

So, my first clue something was wrong was, the notches for the front bodice and front skirt didn't match

I thought that was weird.  No one on PR had mentioned anything about notches not matching.
100 bonus points to you if you know what is wrong at this stage!

Continuing on, the gathers under the bust are really loose, and not as plentiful as on the pattern envelope.  The little circles didn't match up at all.




50 bonus points to you if you know what's wrong at this stage.

And when I tried the dress on, I wound up sewing down the side seams like it's a 12, though I cut the 14. and yet somehow, there is still a lot of room in the front skirt....see how it's triangling out like an A line skirt...but it's supposed to be like a pencil skirt?

and the hips feel very wide?


25 bonus points to you if you know what's wrong now.
So I'll just tell the other parts of this sewing story, unrelated to the error, and will disclose what is wrong at the end.

I had fun getting the invisible zipper in; it took three attempts.  I used Amanda's tutorial which helped a lot for matching up the band, and Sunny Gal Studio's hints for sewing the end of the zip

The band is cut from "uncut" corduroy (i.e. it doesn't have wale)....I used 21 wale corduroy at first (the bodice is lined with the 21 wale corduroy; and the jumper itself is made from 4.5 wale), but it was too short.  (actually that's the 4th clue...10 points).  and didn't have enough left of the 21 wale to cut a continuous piece.  So I went into stash and used the uncut corduroy for the band.  All corduroy is from Joann's.

Though I got the band to line up, the zipper was not lining up at the top, so I had to undo part of the bodice so I could get up inside there and sew the left side down to meet the right side.
This is when the left and right sides didn't match at the CB seam

I felt like I had done a good job with the bodice lining because I understitched the lining all around the neckline.  First I stitched the neckline, then understitched the neckline, then stitched the armholes, and understitched the armholes as far as possible. The directions didn't mention understitching at all, but it keeps the lining from rolling to the outside.  Here's what that looks like--a great closeup of the 21 wale corduroy--and the wale of the 4.5 cord too.

Some more pix:

Another pic of the front on Emma:




For lsaspacey: My cute Mary Janes in three colors:

For Gwen, the chicken pot pie I made Tuesday night:

SO!   How many points did you get?  Do you know where I went wrong?

Answer:  I cut the front skirt on the fold when it was supposed to have a CF seam. I didn't realize this til I was looking at Pattern Review again, thinking about what to do about the bow, when I looked at christa S's review and saw that her dress had a CF seam....and that's when it hit me.

So, should I leave it as-is or should I fix it? I still have all SA from the size 14 so I could fix it and it would still fit. I don't like CF seams on dresses though and if I realized it I would have cut the front hanging the pattern 5/8 from the fold. So essentially the front of my skirt is 1.25 inches too big.
Also should I make the bow or not?
And does it make me look like a kindergarten teacher?
Be well and good night!