Natural colour from plant for fabric dyeing: article / Mohamad Syahmie Sih Arib and Dr Junaidah Jai

Natural dye has attracted the attention of the world due to its environment benefit and impact from usage of synthetic dye. In the present study, cotton and polyster (polysoft) fabric were dyed with three natural dyes derived from Malabar Melastoma (Melastoma Malabathricum), Fern (Dicranopteris Linearis), Tumeric (Curucuma Longa. L) using various natural mordants by three different mordanting method of dyeing. Pre-mordant and Meta-mordant give better results as compared to post-mordant method. Good washing and rubbing fastness with grey scale value higher than 3 was obtained for some mordants used. Post mordant gave light colour appearances. A tie and dyeing technique, through dotted, parallel line, spiral, and rectangular pattern was successful. Regular painting was not suitable to be used for natural dye due to dye spreading effect.