When it comes to solid-color, inexpensive fabrics, broadcloth is the king. It's similar to quilter's cotton in weight and in texture -- although you may find that broadcloth is a little rougher to the touch.

Broadcloth is a light weight fabric, and that means it's often made into easy-breezy skirts and shirts to wear during hot summery months. And, its durability makes it nice for quilt tops and blocks too. All that, plus broadcloth's low price, makes it an appealing fabric.

But because broadcloth is so light, it's a sensitive fabric when it comes to embroidering designs onto it. When we embroider on it, we're adding weight and tension with the stitches. Broadcloth is a bit on the "wimpy" side, so if we add too much weight and tension, or don't provide the right support with stabilizer, then broadcloth will likely pucker. However, if you keep just a few things in mind -- choosing the right designs and stabilizer -- then your broadcloth projects will be trouble-free. Read on for more details!

Broadcloth has an interesting history and manufacturing process. During medieval times, it was usually made from wool into a dense multi-purpose cloth. Over time, other fibers have been incorporated into broadcloth's production, including silk and polyester. Currently broadcloth is most commonly a blend of polyester and cotton.

The textile process gives broadcloth a soft, smooth feeling and silky sheen. It's available in a wide variety of colors, and is most often used in quilting, draperies, and summery lightweight garments, such as shirts and skirts.

Choosing the right designs:

Although broadcloth is tightly woven, it's a lightweight and weak fabric. When choosing designs for a project with broadcloth, look for designs that are light and airy with open spaces. Avoid solid-stitched complex designs with large filled-in areas.

The design on the right is one that would be wonderful on broadcloth. Note the open areas in the buds and leaves, and the light stitching. Also, the design is flowing -- not a solidly filled in circle, square, or rectangle. This means that the fabric will drape well.

Redwork, Bluework, Blackwork, toile, and most light-stitching vintage designs are a great choice for broadcloth. Other good choices include borders and corners (ones with open areas, not solid rectangles), and designs with simple fills. Running stitches, light fills, and some satin stitches are ok, but designs that have layering, shading, and highlighting will ultimately be too heavy for broadcloth.

Choosing your needle: Most embroiderers will use an embroidery needle on just about every project, and doing so will usually get fine results. And, it makes sense: it's an embroidery machine, therefore it needs an embroidery needle.

However, we love using a 75/11 sharp sewing needle in most of our projects, including when stitching on broadcloth. A sharp needle has a finer point than an embroidery needle, so it makes smaller holes in the fabric, and the stitches are nice and crisp.

Either an embroidery needle or a sharp sewing needle will be fine on broadcloth, but if you notice that the holes in your fabric are large (this happens with low-quality broadcloth, which has a looser weave than higher-quality broadcloth), or if you're finding that your stitches are a bit fuzzy and not quite as crisp as you'd like, then try a sharp sewing needle instead.

Caring for the fabric: Pre-wash the fabric to shrink it. It's a cotton polyester blend, so it might shrink a little, or it might shrink a lot -- but it will shrink. And, after you've embroidered the fabric, care for it according to the manufacturer's recommendations (grab those recommendations from the bolt at the store before you leave). All of the broadcloth that we found had labels that recommended washing in warm water, and tumbling dry on low.