New York 1490 (early 1950's?) Two-Fer, Part V: Tweaking, round . . . uh, whatever

I made a test sleeve last night and, of course, the sleeve ease was running wild:

Seriously, it has like ten tucks in it.  They're not quite leg o'mutton sleeves, but they're thinking about it.

The pattern does show tucks or gathers in the sleeve caps: One of my biggest peeves is when a pattern illustration shows a smooth sleeve cap and then the actual sleeve cap has a zillion extra inches and they expect you to miraculously "ease" all of it into the armscye and get the same results.  Right.  Even so, this pattern doesn't show that many tucks in the sleeve cap.  And my arms aren't skinny--a normal sleeve should fit, you know . . . normally.

So, recut #1.  I was kind of winging it.  I lowered the cap, took a little bit of width (only a half-inch, total) out at the armscye, and shifted the shape of the sleeve toward the front.

The second test sleeve was a lot better, both on me and in terms of approximating the pattern illustration:

The test bodice:

There is still plenty of room, and the crown of the sleeve is still pretty puffy, so I recut again and flattened the cap a bit more. 

I also did an upper-back width adjustment + neck darts on the back yoke.  The test bodice fit pretty well but with the smaller sleeves I think it will pull.

My next dilemma involves the bodice and [lack of an] inset belt.  The pattern actually has a waist seam and the "waistband" shown is an external belt (tied on the housedress, buttoned, apparently, on the sundress) over the waist seam.  I don't really like extraneous pieces like this, especially on casual dresses.  I added a half-inch of length to the bodice already.  It needs more.  The other option would be to shorten it again, and then shorten it a little more, and add an inset belt.  I don't see why a pattern should have the look of an inset belt and not actually have an inset belt, right?

Yeah, I'm leaning toward adding an inset belt.  I think I'll be happier about it in the long run.  So . . . more test muslin this weekend.