Burda knotted dress with a fabric shortfall

So my current project is this Burda knotted dress

(I'll have what she's having... I never thought leaning on the tin man's head could result in such ecstasy). 

My problem is that it calls for 3 metres of fabric and I have ... 2 metres. The shortfall is due to the big ties at the end of the wrap. So I've ditched them and tried to turn it into a basic faux wrap dress.But I might stick the wraps back on because I'm having problems with getting the wrap to line up ok at the sides. It's bunching up all wrong because the original fronts wrap over in the middle, while I'm trying to attach them at the sides.

What has gone well is attaching tape to the seams to stabilise them, although my cheap jersey from Birmingham's rag market (£2.50 a metre) is fairly stable. 

So I still have to cut out the sleeves and figure out what to do with the wrap bit.  

When will I learn to just follow the bloody pattern?