Poplin, Broadcloth and Voile: Shaoxing Mujia Textile Adds Ten Looms, 154 Shades
Zhuji, China — November 12, 2026 — Shaoxing Mujia Textile added ten Lenado air-jet looms at its Zhuji plant in March, taking the count to 30, and rebuilt its M60201 poplin shade card to 154 dyed colours. The looms went in to hold more shades in stock rather than dye them against order. The new looms serve three plain weaves — poplin, broadcloth and voile — which share one thing: a plain weave, one warp thread over one weft thread. That is where the similarity ends. Treated as interchangeable, the three produce cloth that presses flat where drape was wanted, or reads transparent where a shirt front was needed.
The differences sit in three places — yarn count, ends per inch (warp threads per inch of cloth), and what happens after weaving.
Yarn count sets the surface
Fine yarns produce a smooth, almost cool surface; coarser yarns leave a visible grain. Poplin traditionally uses a fine warp against a slightly heavier weft, which produces the characteristic rib across the width and a dry, crisp hand. Voile goes finer still, with a low sett (fewer threads per inch in both directions), so light passes through and the cloth reads semi-sheer. Broadcloth sits between the two in density but is finished harder, which closes the surface and gives it a subtle lustre.
What each one does in a garment
Poplin is the usual choice where a collar and a placket have to hold. At 100–140 GSM (grams per square metre) it presses flat, takes a sharp crease and stays there through a working day — which is why it dominates dress shirts.
Voile does the opposite. It is chosen for what it lets through: summer blouses, scarves, layered dresses where the fabric is meant to move and partially reveal. Voile is semi-sheer, so it is unsuitable where a shirt front needs opacity.
Broadcloth sits between the two. It is dense enough for structure, soft enough for a dress, and finished to a slight sheen. It suits collections that span shirts and dresses on one quality.
How can the three be told apart on a swatch table?
Held to the light, a voile swatch lets print read through it, a light poplin passes light but blurs shapes, and broadcloth passes nothing. Along the selvedge, poplin shows a fine crosswise rib, broadcloth a flat closed face, voile an open grid.
Usable width, not nominal width
Buyers compare FOB (free on board) per metre and stop there. The number that decides the garment cost is usable width, which is measured after finishing rather than before.
A cloth sold as 150 cm that finishes at 146 cm loses four centimetres of cuttable width. On a 3,000 m order, for example, that is roughly 80 m paid for and unusable for pattern laying — about 2.7% of the order.
Shaoxing Mujia Textile quotes usable width, not nominal; its poplin is 146 cm usable, measured after finishing. "The ten looms and the 154 shades are one decision," says Emily Zhou, founder and director of Shaoxing Mujia Textile Co., Ltd. "A buyer who has to wait for a lab dip is a buyer who orders somewhere else."
Where the programme sits
The M60201 cotton poplin runs 100–140 GSM at 146 cm usable width. The band is wide because the same cloth serves two customers — blouse weight at the lower end, skirt panel at the upper. The 154 shades on the card are dyed ahead of order and held in stock; a shade outside the card is a lab dip (a small dye sample matched against the customer's reference) and a lead time rather than a new product.
Printed poplin is a separate line: the 8135 floral at 90–120 GSM on 145 cm. The line runs digital throughout, so the six ready colourways mark a starting point rather than the range limit; artwork outside them needs no screen or plate preparation.
Both lines run at 300 m per colour, custom shades included.
The M60201 specification, including the sampling and lab dip sequence, is set out on the [cotton poplin](https://mujiatextile.com/cotton-poplin-fabric.html) product page.
About Shaoxing Mujia Textile Co., Ltd.
Shaoxing Mujia Textile Co., Ltd. is a woven cotton mill in Zhuji, Zhejiang, founded in 2012. It runs 30 Lenado air-jet looms in a 5,000 m² plant and produces about five million metres of woven cotton a year, poplin and broadcloth among the qualities woven and inspected on the same floor. Standard terms are 300 m per colour, roughly 10–15 days after colour confirmation, FOB (free on board) China port, with AQL (acceptable quality limit) 2.5 inspection and a four-point check on every roll. Company profile and full range at [mujiatextile.com](https://mujiatextile.com).