Value addition of flax (Linum usitatisimum) fibre Pandey Ritu*, Dayal Rekha Faculty of Home Science, C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-208 002, Uttar Pradesh, India *Email of corresponding author: ritupandey70@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 15 October, 2015. Abstract Productivity and profitability of cultivation of agricultural fibres depends on various factors such as soil, rainfall, irrigation system, fertilizers, and crop disease. To make it more profitable, it is necessary for value addition of agricultural fibres to enable them to compete with manmade fabrics. Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) fibres, blended with jute and cotton in a ratio of 80: 20, 50: 50 and 20: 80, were tested for their physical properties such as strength, elongation per cent, pilling propensity, crease recovery and stiffness. Flax fibres, yarns and fabric were dyed with natural dyes with application of various mordants. Colourfastness of dyed material was evaluated. Production cost difference of blended fabric was also determined. Blending of flax-jute in a proportion of 80: 20 was best in almost all the characteristics followed by other blends. Among the flax-cotton blended fabrics 20: 80 ratio was superior in performance compared to other blends. However, 100 per cent flax showed the best performance. Cost of the fabric was reasonable. The flax fibres, blended yarns and fabric dyed with various natural dyes displayed wide range of soft, lustrous and bright colours. The fastness properties of dyed material were satisfactory. Top Keywords Flax, Linen, Natural dyeing, Retting. Top |