craftgrrl | Fixing an empire waist

So I was cleaning my room today and came across a dress I used to wear. I tried it on and lo and behold, it still fits, but so poorly that it makes me look like some sort of bovine. My first instinct was to give it to my sister or just give it to goodwill, but I can't just part with it so easily. The top part is this stretchy ribbed...thing that laces up in the front and makes my (far too small IMHO) chest look flippin' fantastic, which is why I want to keep it, but then the rest of the dress is just this shapeless blob.

The subject line of this post had "empire waist" in it because, unless I'm off my rocker, that's what it's called when a shirt or dress cinches up just below the boobs, right? And that's where the stretchy ribbed goodness of this dress ends--right below the boobs. So it's sort of the same thing, right?

How can I fix this? Is there anything that can be done?

(To make up for this text-only post I'm going to post my winged backpack tutorial right after this. :)