Several years ago a dance ministry leader encouraged me to raise my standards for dance garments, to seek to dress beautifully for God’s glory. My biggest objection was financial. I did not have a budget for a new wardrobe of worship garments.
She encouraged me to seek a seamstress for my team, so I started praying about that. I approached people whom I knew sewed and asked them to consider sewing for the team. Though both were willing, neither was enthusiastic.
Then, one day in worship team practice, a woman new to the team mentioned that she sewed and would love to create tunics for the team. She had a passion for worship dance and a desire to use her talent for sewing to bless the ministry.
I was moved by God’s answer to my prayer, and it confirmed that He was blessing the dance ministry He was calling me to. With this friend, I found several patterns that we used to create dance garments:
For the team, she used a simple tunic pattern that she adapted for each team member. She also used this pattern for the children, using it as a model and creating a simple pattern herself. (Pictured below on
the team.)
She created more intricate overlays for my solos, adapting costume overlays. My favorite came from a Medieval gown pattern. We adapted it in several ways, raising the neckline, shortened the length, so that I wouldn’t step on it, and omitting the sleeves. In addition, I had her leave the bottom half of the seams open so that the dress had flaps, which were very effective and made the dress easier to dance in. (Pictured top left.)
The other pattern we used for an overlay was also a costume pattern. We also raised the neckline on this pattern. (See blue and gold overlays.)
Lastly, I found this pattern online for circles skirts: You don’t even need to purchase a pattern, but can simply use the instructions to create the skirt.
Truly, having a skilled seamstress who wants to use her gifts to bless the dance ministry is a gift from God. All of these patterns have been wonderful but also needed to be tweaked to be appropriate for worship dance.
Hello, my sister do you make the garments. Please, let me know thank you very much.
Hi Rev. Brenda. I do not make the garments. God gave me a wonderful friend at my last church who sews. She made them for me.
Thanks, Amy. 🙂 We just got a donation for the kids for dance garments, and I remembered coming across this page. I’ll give these ideas to our seamstress. So excited for the girls. They’re finally going to have proper dance garments!
That’s wonderful. Will you send me pictures when they are made. I pray right now for His blessing on the seamstress and that these garments will give your kids joy and just enhance what they are saying for and to the Lord.
Hello my name is April and I’m currently looking on how to make a praise dance dress in a silk purple color but my finances are tight right now do u know of anyone who would donate one
Hi Amy, It was exciting to come across your article when doing research for this month`s Writing Assignment on garments for our Level 2 homework in DFH!!. Your article was one of the first links to appear on my general google search. Praise God!!
I enjoyed reading it and finding out how you started with a seamstress. I always notice your beautiful and thoughtful garments in your dances, so it was great to read the history here!! What a wonderful blessing and answer to prayer that you found this wonderful seamstress. I hope you don`t mind I will talk briefly and cite your article in my writing assignment for the school!!
That is so fun and encouraging to know. As a blogger, you do hope that you come up on a google search, so thanks for sharing that. Having God provide that seamstress (who was a friend of mine whom I didn’t know sewed) was part of confirming my call to lead that dance ministry. I had asked two other friends whom I knew sewed, and they were reluctantly willing. But He had someone prepared who had a love for dance and who loved sewing those garments, treating it as an honor and a ministry.
Of course, I’m honored to have you mention the article in your assignment.
Beautiful garments.. I too make praise dance garments and am always in search of new ideas. thank you for posting these.
Wonderful. It is fun to look through patterns, too. I was grateful to have a seamstress friend who could modify patterns for me. I don’t have the sewing skills to actually make my own garments. I can make flags, but my skills tap out there.
I need of praise dance attire for my daughter money is tight if I could just get a pattern and the name of the fabric it would be a blessing.
Hi Angela,
I have links to each of the patterns on the post. I just corrected one of them, the pattern for the blue dress, as the link wasn’t working. That dress is chiffon. The tunics for the little girls are chiffon also. Honestly, though, I don’t recommend chiffon for overlays. It is so transparent and fragile. Any polyester silk fabric is nice. I would just look through the fabrics and find one that is pretty, washable, and not stiff. Georgette is beautiful, but is quite expensive. Crepe is also nice. I hope that helps.
Hi Amy,
This is wonderful – thank you so much for sharing! Do you happen to have a copy of the adaptation of the McCalls pattern 4490 that you can share?
Hi Lauren, thank you for your comments. I’m so glad you found it helpful. I’m not sure if I still have a physical copy of the pattern. I did not sew it myself. However, if you simply google McCalls pattern 4490, it will pop up. I see it is available on Etsy and even Amazon. Does that help?