Catholic moms - First Communion Dress help needed!

[dirty ethel rackham]

My daughter is making her First Communion in May. Apparently, I didn't get the memo that you are supposed to start shopping for First Communion dresses in December! We had planned on Meghan wearing my dress, but apparently, my sister accidentally gave it away when she donated her wedding dress - they were in the same box! SIL graciously offered her girls' dresses (from 7 years ago). One was too badly stained to use. The other is lovely but it has a small tear near the hem (which could be easily fixed/camoflaged) and it is too big. To have it altered, the sleeves would have to be taken off and the shoulder seams and side seams would have to be taken in by at least 3/4". I can't cut those seams since she wants it back, so that may interfere with the way the dress lays.

So, I took dd shopping today. We are pretty picky. I like simple dresses that look like a little girl would wear it, not a jr. bridesmaid or a bride! We like sleeker lines but dd likes "some fancy stuff on it". At an expensive children's boutique, we found 3 that she liked, but only one is close to her size, but it is a tad shorter than we would like. DD is tall and thin - size 6 for body but 7 for length. Went to the mall and found expensive dresses that used lousy materials and were poorly made. All of them were very itchy with plenty of flaws.

So, should I attempt to get cousin's dress altered or do I keep looking? Where do I look? Her first communion is in 7 weeks.

Any advice?

[Jeanne in MN]

I know Penney's for sure carries First Communion dresses. You could check ebay-I would sure think there'd be some there. Believe it or not, I got my dd's First Communion dress at Goodwill. I was in a big religious bookstore once and they actually had a room with First Communion dresses, Baptismal gowns and all sorts of related things. Best of luck!

[Brigitte]

Do First Communion dresses in the States have to be solid white? If not, the flower girl dress from American Girl might suit. It has a light pink sash and light pink band at the hem. In Belgium, where I had my First Communion, the dresses all had some sort of embellishement that was another color (mine had dark blu piping).

Just a thought.

[Deece in MN]

Have you looked online?
I don't know what your budget is, but if you Google first communion dress there are a number of sites that may have something that you like.

[MaryM]

Leafletonline.com carries them if you wanted to buy it that way.leafletonline.com

Mary

[Cathy in IL]

Believe it or not but the Easter dress I just got my dd age 9 from TJ Maxx would be a lovely First Communion dress. There were only a few left since Easter is so soon, but a store like that may be worth a try. Depending on what cities are near you, you may find a dress at a store in a Latino community. Here in Chicago they have some beautiful dresses for little girls in our Latino communities.

[BMC]

I wished I could have afforded the lovely ones at the two local Irish shops, but we couldn't (though truthfully they were not *that* expensive, we were just strapped then).

We also have a local formal shop that seems to cater to the quincenara (sp) and bridal crowd that had lovely dresses.

[3littlekeets]

Did you check at Strasburg? I love their dresses. Even those not deemed HC dresses can be used for them! The store has some in stock that you can't find online, too.

http://www.strasburgchildren.com/ficodr.html

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/strasburgchildren_1990_15003507
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/strasburgchildren_1991_5532989
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/strasburgchildren_1989_9141732
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/strasburgchildren_1992_19285280

[dangermom]

I've seen quite a few online. I've been looking at the offerings for baptism dresses for my daughter, and they overlap a lot. There are some nice simple ones as well as the more elaborate dresses. Don't worry, you still have time!

[Sparkle]

My dd is making her First Communion this year too. I actually ended up buying her dress on amazon. It's perfectly beautiful and was so inexpensive. It took about 2 weeks to arrive. Here's the link to it: http://www.amazon.com/Exquisite-New-White-Satin-Dress/dp/B000AAAGK4/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1205658157&sr=8-2
The pictures really don't do it justice.

Good luck! I know it can be frustrating, but you've still got plenty of time to shop.

[Jenny in Florida]

My daughter is pretty conservative and picky when it comes to clothing, and we've had good luck for her at Penney's. Often, even if they don't have what you want on the racks in the store, you can order it through their online catalogue. I just went and took a look, and they seem to have a fair number of pretty dresses for little girls on sale.

--Jenny

[melissel]

I was in our local Sears the other day and they had a TON of them, right by the register. DD5 said, "Oooooh, wedding dresses!" :D

[Arch At Home]

Do you have any friends or members of your church who might have a dress to lend? We borrowed the dress my first dd wore from the family that sits behind us. It was special to all involved. We also had several other offers of dresses which I may take advantage of if dd 2 does not fit the one we have.

[PrairieAir]

I'm not Catholic, but I have a suggestion. When dd was asked to be the flower girl in my brother's wedding, we found a lovely dress for her at a little dress shop in Wichita. It's in the section of town where a lot of Hispanic families live and own businesses and they specialize in dresses for first communions and quinceneras (sp?). Some of the dresses were very fancy with lots of embellishment, but there were plenty of simpler styles, too. We found a lovely white, sleeveless dress with a long, full tulle overskirt with just a few little pearls sewn here and there for $35. There were some simpler styles, too, and styles with sleeves. They also had all of the accessories: shoes, wraps, headbands and hair ribbons, purses, little white Bibles, jewelry, gloves, tights. I think we spent $55 total for shoes, dress, and tights. And dd was in heaven shopping in a store with all that fabulous girlie stuff.

[PrairieAir]

Also, if you get a dress with the right cut (higher waist) and with a sash, you may be able to go up a size and just tighten with the sash to make it fit your tall and slim daughter without altering.

[Tracey in TX]

We bought our DD's First Communion Dresses online. DD1 was very particular in her style and material preference, but is much larger than her younger sisters, who wanted dresses similar to big sis.

I was thrilled with shopping online. We used www.theperfectpear.com (http://www.theperfectpear.com)

Let us know what you decide!

[dirty ethel rackham]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I went to Penney's and Sears, but still not much to choose from. Penney's had only 4 dresses in her size and only one came close to what we want. It seems that over 80% of the dresses are sleeveless and we definitely wanted sleeves. It is still cool in May in northern Illinois. We tried the Irish import shop. They could not get any dress in a size 6. I think I have spent at least 8 hours searching online for a dress. Most of the dresses were sleeveless, floor length, too grown up or didn't come in her size. I hemmed and hawed on getting her cousin's dress altered to fit, but when I found out how much it would cost and how it would not lay right due to not wanting to cut the seam allowance, we gave up on that idea.

We finally decided to bite the bullet and spend a little more than expected (OKAY, a lot more than the free hand-me-down dress that is lost forever.) But, dd and I are very happy with the dress we chose. Here is the picture: First Communion Dresshttp://www.myfirstcommunion.com/pd-francesca-first-communion-dress.cfm We would have liked a little lace on top, but the beading is pretty yet simple. The dress is demure and has clean lines.

<Huge sigh of relief!>

Now onto veils. I just couldn't see spending $60 on the veil she liked, so I may make one for her. I made my own bridal veil, so this should be a piece of cake :)!

Again, thanks for your help. Looking at all my options helped me feel confident in our decision.

[Janet in Toronto]

It's a lovely choice for a very special day!

Janet