Attaching the gathered skirt to the bodice

As pattern instructs, I stitched two rows of gathering stitches between the dots transferred from the pattern. Next, the pattern states to cinch up the skirt until it matches the length of the bodice... Does this mean I should be matching the dots (where the cinching begins) to the two ends of the bodice, or do I match to where the notch cut-outs on the skirt begin? Or are both of those thoughts incorrect? I've included a image that demonstrates the skirt matching up to the dots on the right and matching up to the notch on the left. If I am suppose to match it up with the notch (as pictures shoes on left side), why wouldn't the pattern indicate to gather the inch of fabric between the dot and notch on each side?