Broadcloth Fabric Directory

What Broadcloth Is

Broadcloth is a plain weave worked tight and fine: warp and weft interlace one-over-one-under as in any plain weave, but the yarns are fine, the sett is close, and the finished cloth is smooth, flat and even-surfaced with almost no visible texture - the opposite pole from a nubby boucle or a diagonal twill. The name is older than the modern shirt: broadcloth began as a wide woollen cloth, fulled and sheared to a smooth face, and the word travelled as the construction changed, so today's broadcloth is usually cotton or a cotton blend woven for shirting, blouses, dresses and linings. Buyers should always confirm fiber content rather than assume it from the name, because the name describes the weave and finish, not the fiber.

The qualities that sell broadcloth are consistency and printability. A tight plain weave takes dye evenly, holds a printed pattern crisply, irons to a clean flat finish and sews without puckering at normal shirt weights - which is why it anchors the dress-shirt category and why mills compete on yarn quality and finishing rather than novelty. Against its near relation poplin, broadcloth is generally the smoother and finer of the two, without poplin's fine crosswise rib; against lawn and cambric it is the more substantial. The weaving background is in About Woven Fabrics, and the Fabric Directory hub covers the wider woven family.

Specifying Broadcloth Well

A useful broadcloth specification names the fiber and blend, the yarn count, the thread count (ends and picks per inch), the finished width and the finish - wrinkle-resistant, moisture-managed and easy-care finishes are all standard offers on shirting broadcloth, and each changes the hand. Weight matters by end use: dress shirts sit at the light end, while dresses, uniforms and craft uses run heavier. Ask each mill which of its qualities are stock-supported in white and standard colours and which are dyed to order, since lead time, not price, is usually what separates one mill's offer from another's.

The eight listings below span China, Taiwan and India alongside mills whose profiles carry their own locations - a fair map of where volume broadcloth is woven today. Around this directory, the trade runs through the Machinery directory, Clothing Industry Factories, Yarn Factories, Fabric Retail and Fabric Wholesalers, with the Fibers Directory and Fabric Definitions for terminology and Fashion Industry News, Clothing Industry Employment and Conversion Charts alongside.

Using This Directory

The listings below are the complete set for this category as Apparel Search carries it: eight mills and exporters, each linked to its own profile in the Fabric Mills by Name section. No listing has been added or removed. Thank you for using the Apparel Search Fabric Mill Directory.

Broadcloth Fabric Mills Listed in This Directory