Tea leaves: A herbal dye on ERI silk

Abstract

Eco-friendly natural dyes are in demand now a days. Dyeing eri silk with different dyestuffs enhance the quality of fabric as well as its aesthetic value. Colouring of eri silk with tea leaves as a natural dye makes the natural grey or beige colour of eri silk more attractive. Various dyeing conditions were optimised with the use of different mordants and colour fastness properties of the fabrics were determined and it was found that all the mordants showed maximum absorption in simultaneous mordanting method. The colour fastness was observed very fair to good rating and colour yield was cyote, field drab, bistre and straw colour.