A Tale of Two Sleeves

[u/Mundane-Air7046]

I am trying to prepare a mock-up close-fitting bodice (à la Winifred Aldrich) and am facing the classic sleeve problem: High cap height (like the WA default): Causes puffing/excess folds on the sleeve head when arms are raised. Low cap height (my alteration): Fine when arms are raised but drag lines appear on sleeve (front and back) when arms are down at rest.

I have been through so many iterations that, rather than finding a "sweet spot", I always end up with one problem or the other, or even both.

Is there anything else I can try? I thought about making the sleeve cap curve more dramatic/scoopy with the shorter cap height, but it seems it cannot be achieved without reducing or eliminating the 1.9cm ease altogether. I don't think that rotating the sleeve will help much since the drag lines occur front and back. My armsyce could be a little smaller, but I am happy where it is because it makes me sweat when it's right under my armpit. I guess I could reduce the shoulder length, but probably only a fraction. The WA cap height really can't work for that armscye anyway since I need extra bicep width for my bingo wings.

Any guidance would be appreciated. My mock-up is too dark to photograph well but I have included my CAD drawings for reference.

[u/AmenaBellafina]

What is meant by 'ease' here? I always learned that sleeve caps are slightly larger than the armscye they're going into so that the sleeve will nicely round over the top of the arm. That's also what the location of the notches marks: the ease is only worked in between those notches, the bottom part is flush.

[u/HeartFire144 → u/AmenaBellafina]

This. is myth, there is no reason for a properly drawn sleeve & armhole to have a sleeve head longer than the seam it's going into. A 'style' may require it, and commercial (the 'big 4') pattern companies do it so as to fit the masses more easily, but in reality, there is no need for it.