1979 First Communion Dress

Object:

In many ways it is a simple handmade children’s dress (see Figures 1, 2, and 3). Sewn from white cotton eyelet fabric, it features long puffy sleeves gathered at the wrists and a 7-inch ruffle at the bottom of the long skirt. A belt of the same fabric used to accompany the dress and would have been threaded through the belt loops on either side of the gown—a way to break up the long expanse of fabric and to provide its young wearer with a waistline. The neckline and bodice showcase the most decorative elements. A high-necked ruffled collar mimicked by another ruffle sewn along the yoke create visual interest and draw your gaze toward the wearer’s face. Two pins adorn the bodice and provide more clues about the significance of the dress. The one shaped like a badge displays a chalice with a host and the words “Communion Remembrance,” while the other is a chalice with grapes and a small host. This not just dress, it is a First Communion dress.

Wearer and Creator:

It was worn in May or June of 1979 by my close friend, Gigi, in our rural Western New York town. Gigi’s aunt and godmother made if for her, one of several outfits she sewed for her during her childhood. In her early 20s and unmarried at the time, Gigi’s aunt made the dress as a gift and an expression of their close bond. Gigi does not remember having any input in the design, but she does recall going shopping and picking out the delicate and feminine eyelet fabric. As scholar Susan Ridgely explains in her study of First Communion, “girls either went on a special shopping trip or were given their dresses by older family members. The special circumstances of the selection of their dresses seemed to make the details more vivid to the girls” (Ridgeley 2005, 164). Given that the closest fabric store to our rural town was forty minutes away, the trip combined with the special task of selecting the fabric made it memorable. So did wearing a headpiece that, if Gigi’s memory is correct, was worn by her grandmother, mother, aunts, and older sister (Personal Interview 2024).

Dramatic moments, including Gigi’s fears of First Reconciliation and her passing out during the First Communion Mass due to the unseasonably warm temperatures (and maybe some nerves), overshadow her other memories of the ritual. As we reminisced, she remembered and expressed surprise at the size of the party her family held to celebrate the event. Family, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, traveled from five hours away to be there and her mom “made these white chocolates—praying hands and crosses.” Gigi also received gifts, including a small, brown suitcase from her uncle and godfather. It was an important family and spiritual occasion marked by celebration (Personal Interview 2024).

Family was also an integral part of the dress itself. The sewing of it, like the headpiece, stitched together generations of women in the family. Gigi’s grandmother sewed clothes and quilted; skills passed down to her daughters. These family threads and skills likely explain why Gigi’s aunt made this dress especially for her. It also makes sense of why Gigi’s mom laundered her First Communion dress and packed it away with other handmade clothes made by her aunt and grandmother. It is a family thread that continues with Gigi. She made her son’s vest and shorts for his baptism, as well as a bowtie for his First Communion, out of the fabric from her wedding dress. She also sews blankets for new babies in the family, some made from quilts her mom started before her passing.

Context:

In the 1970s, sewing was increasingly seen as a creative hobby, rather than a strict economic necessity. In 1974, research suggests “that 50 million women between the ages of 12 and 65 sewed” (Schofield-Tomschin 1999). This coincided with and reinforced a turn toward incorporating “homemade crafts” and techniques into the fashions of the day (Reddy 2020). In our rural community, filled with farms and 4-H, sewing was something many women did, and young girls learned. It was a skill in keeping with the frugality and industriousness valued in our small town and other small towns at the time. More than that, though, it was an activity that people, mostly women, enjoyed. In thinking about her family and especially her aunt, Gigi shared that sewing “was a little bit of a necessity, but also a fun thing” (Personal Interview 2024).

This First Communion dress underlines family connections and the popularity of sewing in the 1970s, but it also highlights the predominance of Catholicism in the Northeast. In Orleans County, New York, where we grew up, Catholicism represented the single largest religious denomination, 29 percent of the population. Mainline Protestants trailed at 20 percent (ARDA). This strength emerged, in part, from Catholicism’s commitment to the family and socializing youth through the rituals of First Communion and Confirmation. Both faithful church attendees and more occasional participants valued First Communion as a significant familial and spiritual event. You can see this in Figure 4, one of Gigi’s photos of the event, which includes eleven communicants and three altar boys. For a small town of less than one thousand people, the number of children in the photo highlights the significance of Catholicism, or at least this ritual, at the time. This communal celebration bolsters Catholicism and families even as it serves a deeper spiritual purpose: as a rite of passage, it recalls baptism and invites youth further into the life of the church as it confers on them the status of communicant—one able to understand and partake in the holy sacrament of the eucharist.  

Special attire, specifically the wearing of white dresses and veils, connected communicants to the Catholic past. This sartorial tradition emerged in the nineteenth century. It was influenced by French fashion magazines that showed “demure veiled communicants arriving at the church clutching prayer books, alongside their mothers. The dresses are fashionable but plainly trimmed” (Jarvis 2007, 86). At that time, communicants were adolescents, so this First Communion attire was designed for teen or almost teen girls (see Figure 5). It was not until 1910 that Pope Pius X, in his encyclical Quam Singulari, shifted the age of First Communion to children ages seven or eight. This aligned with the Pope’s emphasis on the importance of taking the sacrament and the theological idea that “small children were in a state of grace” and at the perfect age to partake (Jarvis 2007, 93). Despite the change in age, the tradition of wearing white dresses and veils continued to be a vital part of the ritual as seen in Gigi’s dress and those worn by First Communicants today.

The simplicity of Gigi’s homemade dress belies its complex meaning, history, and significance. Its making highlights how sewing creates threads of connection between generations of women in a family. Its wearing demonstrates the significance of Catholicism and its rituals for children and their parents. And in its details, we see the power of religious dress traditions to connect people to the past and their faith. Family, religion, and tradition are stitched together in its seams and woven into its design. Carefully preserved and tucked away in a box, this dress is not forgotten, but an important part of the fabric of memory that enlivens religious life.

Lynn S. Neal, Professor of Religious Studies, Wake Forest University.

9 August 2024

Tags: Catholicism, Ceremonial, Children, First Communion, Handmade, United States

References:

ARDA. “Orleans County, New York—County Membership Report (1980-1990).” TheARDA.com. Accessed August 7, 2024. Available at: https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=1980&y2=1990&t=0&c=36073.

Personal Interview. 2024. Zoom interview with Gigi.

Reddy, Karina. 2020. “1970-1979.” Fashion History Timeline, August 18, 2020. Accessed August 7, 2024. Available at: https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1970-1979/.

Schofield-Tomschin, Sherry. 1999. “Home-Sewing: Motivational Changes in the Twentieth Century.” In The Culture of Sewing: Gender, Consumption and Home Dressmaking, edited by Barbara Burman, 97-110. Oxford: Berg. Accessed August 7, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2752/9781847888884/cultsew0010.