of cutwork oversleeves stiffened with braid
reads as tetrameter, because "oversleeves" carries significant stress only on its first syllable. By itself the word is dactyllic, like "overalls" or "oversight." You'd have to promote "sleeves" to get a fifth beat, and that would work only if "over" and "sleeves" were two separate words. If they were two separate words, which would change the meaning, the reversed foot would indeed be pleasing:
of cutwork over sleeves stiffened with braid
Carol
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