Lots of knitters pick up stitches by grabbing a strand of yarn along the edge of their knitting and putting that strand on their needle as a stitch. This is not how picking up stitches is taught by most sources and will not work when you need to pick up more than one stitch per row of knitting.
This is how the fronts should overlap, and where to place the buttons.
I learned from expert sources many years ago how to pick up stitches neatly, without distorting the edge of your knitting. For this pattern, you need a large number of stitches for the front band, so that the front of the sweater does not pull up, but makes a nice curve.
Below are some photos of one way to pick up 2 stitches in one row.
I have used a contrast color yarn so that the stitches picked up are easy to see.
Step 1: The right needle tip is inserted under both sides of the edge stitch.
Step 2: Working yarn is wrapped around the tip of the right needle
Step 3: Here is the new stitch picked up. If you were picking up just one stitch at the end of this row, you would be finished.
Step 4: To pick up a second stitch in the same row, insert the tip of the needle under only one side of the same stitch in which you just picked up a stitch.
Step 5: Wrap the yarn around the tip of the needle.
Step 6: And here is the second stitch picked up in the same row