Dressing the Body for the Funeral

Every funeral professional uses different techniques when dressing a body.  Some choose to cut the clothes in a continuous line up the back and place them on the body much like a kindergarten teacher would dress a child in a smock for painting. Others refuse to cut the clothes, prefering to go the more difficult route of dressing the body with the clothing intact. 

The biggest concern is that the person cannot move and is, quite often, too heavy to be lifted for any length of time, meaning that you'll only get a few seconds to pull up skirts & pants or to pull down dresses and shirts. It should be noted that most funeral professionals will use undergarments, even when none are provided.  Often, this expense is not factored into the charges paid by a family.  Still, most professionals see it as a matter of honor that their clients are fully dressed, even if their families do not provide the appropriate garments

 Since dressing is always done before you style the hair or add cosmetics, we'll start with a clean body.  Undergarments are first, meaning underwear, socks and undershirt, if provided.  Place the feet and through the underwear and move the garment up the legs.  Lifting the thigh will help position the underwear over the buttocks. Undershirts can be harder to place, especially if you don't want to cut the clothes.  Embalmed arms are often stiff and will not bend at the elbow joint.  However, the shoulder joint is usually more flexible.  

Place the scrunched-up shirt on the stomach, guide both arms through the bottom of the shirt and out the arm holes.  Pull the shirt up the arms, keeping it gathered.  Grasping the back "scrunched" section and lifting the arms into a "touchdown" position, pull the shirt over the head.  Now you can place a hand between the shoulders and lift up to facilitate pulling the shirt down over the back. Pants go on just like underwear, provided that you have placed the belt into the loops BEFORE you pull up the pants.