A Comparative Study on Dyeing of Cotton and Silk Fabric Using Madder as a Natural Dye

Madder is considered the queen of the reds which is one of the oldest used natural dyes. In this study, madder was applied to cotton and silk fabrics by using mordants in various ways to investigate the coloring effects. Alum and copper sulphate were used as mordants not only before and after dyeing process but also during the process. The aqueous extract of the dye was applied on the scoured cotton and silk fabrics with and without mordants and the acquired samples have been subjected to different textile laboratory tests e.g. color fastness to light, wash, rubbing (wet and dry) and perspiration. The dye extraction procedure applied in this experiment was conventional. The obtained color of silk samples found deeper than cotton samples and mordanted silk fabrics with alum show greater color fastness to wash than cotton fabrics(alum and copper sulphate mordanted) show. Other tested dyeing properties of silk fabrics observed better than those in cotton fabrics. Finally the test concluded with the result that silk fabrics can be made more sophisticated with strong versatile shades of madder.