The Dyeing Of Cotton

The dyeing of cotton is difficult with the natural dye stuffs, there

are only a few colours which can be said to be satisfactory. The

fastest known in earlier days was Turkey red, a long and difficult

process with madder and not very practical for the small dyer. It had

its origin in India where it is still used; red Indian cotton is one

of the fastest colours known. Catechu is another excellent cotton dye

used for various shades of brown, grey and black. A cold indigo vat is

used for blue, Indigo Extract is not used. Yellows can be got with

weld, flavin, turmeric (for which cotton has a strong attraction), and

fustic. Great care is to be taken in dyeing yellow as it is not very

fast to light. Greens may be got by dyeing in the indigo vat and then

with a yellow recipe, purples from logwood with tin mordant, but

purples and greens are unsatisfactory, and not suitable to the

vegetable dyer.