PREPARATION OF CLOTH FOR DYEING AND PRINTING

Washing : Mill bleached and mercerised cotton cloth has been taken as basic material for preparation of
this shade card. However, this cloth is washed by boiling with 2% (on the weight of material) ordinary
washing soap solution, in a liquor ratio of 1:30 (taken in all subsequent processes also) for 45 minutes to
remove all kinds of finishing additives.

DYEING
There are 7 distinct stages for dyeing of cotton fabric with vegetable/natural dyes. These are:

1. Treatment with Harda or Myrabolan : Cotton does not have affinity for all vegetable/natural dyes.
Moreover, these dyes are not fast on cotton unless it is pretreated with Tannic acid or some metal
mordants. Harda is the natural source of Tannic acid. The washed cloth is treated with a solution containing
20 gms per litre of Harda powder at 40oC for 15 minutes with constant stirring. Then it is taken out from
the bath and squeezed evenly before drying in shade. Precaution is to be taken out to dry the treated cloth
in direct sun because the surface exposed to sun becomes darker in dyeing resulting uneven shades. The
wet cloth should not come in contact with iron otherwise it will turn black.
2. Removal of excess Harda Powder from the cloth : Excess Harda powder deposited on the surface
of the cloth is removed by beating the cloth with a miller or the cloth itself is beaten on hard surface. It
helps in good penetration of mordants and dyes in the cloth in subsequent processes resulting better
dyeing/printing qualities.
3. Treatment with Mordants: the following 5 popular mordants are used in different quantities to
obtain five different shades of colours from vegetable/natural dyes. This is the unique character of such
dyes that give different shades when treated with different mordants.
Sl. No. Name of the Mordant Quantity (gm/litre) Treatment Temperature Time (min)
1 Stannous Chloride 2 40oC 15
2 Alum 10 Normal 15
3 Potassium Dichromate 0.5 o
40 C 15
4 Copper Sulphate 1 o
40 C 15
5 Ferrous Sulphate 0.25 40oC 15

The cloth is treated with the above mordant with constant stirring. Then it is taken out from the bath and
sqeezed evenly before drying in the shade.
4. Washing : The dried cloth is rinsed in plain water thoroughly to remove excess and unfixed
mordant.
5. Dyeing : Dyeing is carried out in two stages, namely:
a. For extraction of dyes, various vegetable/natural dye-yielding materials are boiled in plain
water. The
dye solution is sieved out before adding it to the dye bath.
Name of the dye-yielding materials are given below:

Sl. Botanical name of the Common/Local Parts of the Quantity Dye Extraction
No. Plant Name Plant used (gms/litre) Time
1 Nyctanthes arbour-tristis Harshingar Flower 2 30 Min
2 Carthamus Tinetorius Kusum Flower 20 30 Min
3 Butea Frondosa Kesula Flower 40 1 Hr
4 Lawsonia Inrmis Heena/Mehendi Leaf 40 45 min
5 Terminalia Chebula Harda Flower 20 30 min
6 Punica granatum Pomegranate/Anar Fruit rind 20 1 hr
7 Lawsonia Inermis Heena/Mehendi Seed 40 45 min
8 Allium Cepa Onion/Pyaj Skin 20 1 hr
9 Camellia Sinensis Tea/Chay Leaf 10 30 min
10 Rubia cordofolia Majith Stem 40 2 hr
11 Caesalpinia sappan Sappan wood Inner part 40 Soaked
overnight &
boiled for 1 hr
12 Acacia Arabica Babul Bark 40 Soaked
overnight &
boiled for 1 hr
13 Acacia Catechu Catechu/Kaththa Resin 3 10 min
14 Onosmas echiodes Ratanjot Wood 40 1 hr

b. Actual dyeing of the mordanted cloth is done in a bath containing the previously extracted dye
solution and water. The material is entered into the bath at 40 oC and then the temperature is
slowly raised. Dyeing is carried out at 80oC for 45 minutes with frequent stirring. The dyed
material is taken out from the bath, squeezed evenly and then opened fully to bring down its
temperature to normal before rinsing in plain water.