Tlingit weavers also used their skills to produce articles of ceremonial dress other than dancing blankets. Among these were aprons, leggings, and a very few rare pouches, cartridge boxes, and shamans' hats. The largest and most spectacular of these ceremonial articles, however, was the tunic, either sleeved or sleeveless. Probably derived from a painted dance tunic, or perhaps an armor shirt, it was modified and conventionalized by the weaving process. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

No more royal robe ever draped a king than the dancing blanket of the northern Northwest Coast, universally named the Chilkat blanket, after the Tlingit tribe whose weavers specialized in its making in the nineteenth century. Its characteristic five-sided form, richly fringed, with striking black and yellow bands bordering a complex tapestry of eyes, fins, or feathers, is instantly recognizable. There are dozens of Chilkat blanket patterns. The most common are those called diving whale, most of which are divided into three distinct panels, the central one depicting the whale. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)