RTW Failure - Coeur a la Creme

Ever since I saw this dress on Modcloth, I was in love:

As it is no longer available (and I doubt that even if it were still available, I'd be able to fit it), I decided to try and make my own someday.  I thought patternreview.com's RTW challenge was the perfect opportunity.  I scoured through the various company patterns and found one that I thought was pretty close - Butterick 5605:

I even found a black buckle on clearance similar to the one in the original Coeur a la Creme dress.  

As you can guess by the title of this post, it did not work out.  I have not finished making this, but am abandoning the project as I don't know how to fix the problems.   I was way to ambitious.  Here's my unfinished version:

 

I followed an online tutorial to make the heart cut out, but I placed the heart too close too the edge.  This was very problematic when trying to turn it inside out.  Also, I should've used a heart that had sharper angles -if that makes sense- because it kind of looks like an oval instead of a heart:

Additionally, the fit of this pattern is very...umm...odd.  I'm daunted just thinking about all the alterations I would have to do to make this work.  I picked the right size for the bust through the hem; however, the clavicle area is too big.  It doesn't lie flat so the heart is a bunched up messed:

So I didn't get to enter the contest after all.... :(