Hoo, boy. I've never found anything more confusing to research than the multitude of fabric types in the period. There are literally hundreds of names/types, and trying to get anywhere in understanding them is like a puppy chasing its tail, a lot of motion but never getting to the end. Here's a basic list which will get you started, and that's all I can offer.
All of these fabrics were listed on a trade ledger of a transaction recorded in Oct. 1758, in Southwest Virginia (spelling variations included as spelled in 18c. documents)
Ozbg Osnabrig Ozenbrg Osnaburg: Coarse unbleached linen or hempen
cloth first made in Osnabruck, Germany. Commonly used for sacking and
bagging.
Ticklenburg: A coarse rough cloth made of hemp or linen. Like osnaburg, which was less coarse, it was also named for the German town where it was once made.
Bed ticken, Ticking: (coutil Fr.) Linen twill. According to John
Holker's manuscript, this material was used for the aprons worn by
distillers, brewers, and waiters. Savory des Bruslons stated that army
tents were made of ticking and that it served to enclose feathers in
mattresses, bolsters, and pillows. Samples of blue and white, and tan
and white linen "coutil", are in a Williamsburg collection. (red and white ticking was not available in the 18c.)
Shalloon: A cheap twilled worsted. One of the materials most
commonly imported into America, shalloons were used for the lining of
clothing. "A thin loosely woven twilled worsted stuff."
Serge: "A twilled cloth with worsted warp and woolen weft woven on a
four-treadle loom. Lighter and narrower than broadcloth and of better
quality than kersey. Middleweight cheap and hard wearing.
Bearskin: "A coarse thick woolen cloth, with a shaggy nap manufactured
for.... "overcoats, and very durable" (Caulfield & Saward) "bearskin,
dreadnaught, fearnaught" were American terms for such an overcoating
cloth.
Buckskin: (1) fine woolen cloth with a milled and dressed finish showing
a distinctive twill. (2) A Kerseymere cloth of very fine texture embroidered with silk by children. It is napped, fulled thoroughly and shorn, the face being finished very smooth.
Broadcloth: Made of carded wool in plain weave and fulled after weaving.
Woven on a wide loom and measured 54 to 63 inches in width.
Buckram: A stiff lining fabric, a coarse cloth made from hemp, or linen.
Also used to wrap bolts of fine fabrics to protect.
Holland: Linen cloth. Once specifying country of manufacture for a
wide variety of linen goods, later became the generic name for linen
cloth, often of fine quality.
Dowlafs, Dowlas: "A coarse linen, very commonly worn by the lower
classes." Shirts, sheets bolsters and pillows
Drill : A heavy linen cloth. (also any heavy cloth, hemp or wool)
Russia Drill:
Cambrick Cambric: A fine white linen cloth in plain weave.
Callamanco Calimanco: A worsted stuff, used for clothing and
occasionally furnishings.
Yorkshire Plains : Woolen fabric
Duffields, Duffel : Heavy napped woolen cloth. Also Shags, Trucking
cloth (barter cloth) Also wool "trade" blankets, most commonly white.
Stroudwater blankets Stroud blankets: Thick wool blankets, usually
red, sometimes blue or black stripes near each end of the blanket.
Strouds, duffels, and blankets were all traded for beaver skins to Indians
.Stroud: A woolen cloth woven and dyed, especially red, on the River Stroud in Gloucestershire. (stroud" is red unless another color is specified, such as "blue stroud" )
Nankeen: A cotton cloth of plain weave originally sold at Nankin in
China and made from a yellow variety of cotton, "of the same yellow tinge which preserves when spun and woven into cloth" At least by the mid 18c. in the Manchester area it was made of ordinary cotton dyed yellow.
Bed Blanketts: White wool blankets
Dutch Blanketts:
Rugges, Rugg, Rug: A coarse wool cloth with a shagged or friezed
finish used as garments by the poorer classes and bed coverings. A kind
of cloth, and not a floor covering. Commonly green.
OTHER REFERENCES TO "TRADE CLOTH"
-Half Thicks: Coarse woolen cloth. Defoe wrote of "Those [foreigners]
whose clothing was of coarse Duffields, Wadmill, Halfthicks, and in
general a kind of the coarsest Kersies, but a degree or two above
Blankets: or the meanest of our Dozens, and what we call Yorkshire
Cloths".
Worsted or Cruels: Worsted: Lightweight cloth made of long-staple
combed wool yarn. The name was derived from the village of Worsted near Norwich, a center for worsted weaving. The smooth shiny fibers were
suitable for embroidery and indeed were synonymous with the word
"crewel" or crewel yarn.
Crewel: Loosely twisted, fine two-ply worsted yarn especially suited to
embroidery as it is easily pulled through cloth. "....likewise deal in
crewels, which are the ends of the warps of worsted or yarn cut out of
the loom..."
Swanskin: A fine woolen cloth of plain weave related to flannel and bay.
Canvas: 1 A coarse unbleached cloth of hemp, less frequently of flax,
very strong which serves as ship sails. 2 A coarse unbleached cloth of hemp, serves to cover a woman's stays, also to stiffen men's clothes, and to make some other of their wearing apparel.
Linsey-Woolsey : A coarse cloth made of linen warp and woolen weft. "A
coarse woolen manufacture first constructed in the parish of Linsey of
Suffolk" (Fairholt).
Bays baize, a soft felt-like woolen fabric-usually green.
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Neal Hurst:
Manufacturers of wool textiles broadly fell into two categories. Worsted wools such as duroys, serges, sagathies, everlastings, camblets, and calimancoes, were produced through a method of combing long stapled fleece to align the fibers for spinning.
Woolens, such as broadcloths, kerseys, kendals, strouds, and duffels were created through carding the fibers, which opened the fleece making it airy and better suited for warmth. Together, eighteenth-century men referred to these textiles collectively as cloth. Today the term cloth might describe any number of textiles, but the eighteenth-century consumer usually associated the term with a fabric made from wool.
Today wool fabrics are rarely worn outside of the winter season, but for summer wear in the eighteenth century wools filled men’s wardrobes. Worsted wools, characterized by their tight hard spun yarns and smooth finish, were the dominant choice and tradition within England and the southern colonies for lightweight, comfortable, hardwearing, summer textiles.
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You are on your own.
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