Well, the blouse was just not salvageable! Even though I could solve the fit issues---convert those gathers back to darts or pleats, and raise the Empire waistline to put it closer to my underbust area---the horizontal lines of the fabric's print and the curved shapes of the pattern did NOT make for a nice finished product. The print just didn't work on this pattern shape. And I knew I was taking a chance when I cut it...but I wanted to try!

Look at the way the 'stripe' of leopard spots meets at the sideseams. Awful! Just NOT worth any more of my time! So I am moving on...