Embroidered Fabric

What Embroidered Fabric Is

Embroidery decorates a ground fabric with stitched thread - a design worked into the cloth rather than woven into its structure or printed onto its surface. As a fabric category it means cloth embroidered across its full width for cutting into garments, as distinct from the motif and logo embroidery applied to a finished garment, which this site covers in its Embroidery Directory; the formal Embroidery Definition in the definitions section states the craft precisely. Full-width work is done on two machine families: the schiffli machine, whose hundreds of needles stitch a repeating design across a wide ground at once - the historic engine of the Swiss and Indian embroidered-cloth trade - and multi-head machines, which repeat smaller motifs and borders. Eyelet embroidery (broderie anglaise), with its punched holes edged in stitch, and guipure, where the stitching itself forms a lace with no ground at all, are the family's best-known forms.

Almost any ground can carry embroidery - cotton voile and cambric for the classic whitework trade, organza and tulle for bridal cloth, denim and canvas for fashion workwear effects, knitted grounds for embellished jersey - and the thread decides the character as much as the design: matte cotton thread for traditional work, rayon and polyester for sheen and color range, metallic thread for ceremony, wool for crewel-style texture. Because the decoration is added after the ground is woven or knitted, an embroidered fabric combines two supply chains in one cloth, which is why its mills cluster where skilled embroidery industries already exist.

Buying and Using Embroidered Fabrics

The specification points are ground, design repeat and stitch density. The ground comes first because it fixes the garment the cloth can become - its weight, drape and care all follow the base fabric, with the embroidery adding stiffness roughly in proportion to how much of the surface it covers. Repeat size decides cutting economics: a large schiffli repeat wastes cloth if garment panels cannot be placed to use the design well, and borders and scalloped edges must be planned into the pattern before cutting, not discovered at the table. Stitch density is the quality dial - denser stitching gives richer coverage and a firmer hand and costs more in thread and machine time; a sample washed before bulk ordering shows whether ground and thread shrink together or pucker against each other, the classic fault of a badly matched embroidery specification.

Care follows the more delicate of the two partners: metallic and rayon threads and open eyelet work ask gentler handling than a plain ground would need, and heavy embroidery on a light ground should be supported in wear and storage so the stitching does not drag the cloth out of shape. Around this directory, the Fabric Directory hub covers the full fabric family A-Z - the menu carried at the foot of this page is that directory in full - and the trade runs through the Textile Machinery directory, Clothing Industry Factories, Yarn Factories, Fabric Retail and Fabric Wholesalers, with the Fibers Directory and Fabric Definitions alongside.

Using This Directory

The listings below are the complete set for this category as Apparel Search carries it: nine mills across India, China and Pakistan, each linked to its own profile in the Fabric Mills by Name section. No listing has been added or removed. Several of these mills appear elsewhere in the fabric directory under their ground-cloth specialities as well, which reflects how the trade works - an embroidery mill is usually also a weaver or knitter of grounds, selling the finished decorated cloth. Industry readers also use Fashion Industry News, Clothing Industry Employment and Conversion Charts. When you enquire, send a photograph of the design type you want with the ground cloth and width you need; embroidery is quoted from artwork, and a picture settles in one exchange what a description cannot. Thank you for using the Apparel Search Fabric Mill Directory.

Embroidered Fabric Mills Listed in This Directory