Color Staining or “Luntur” on Plain Dyed Fabric

Hello !

You may have encounter purchasing fabric where the colour or dyes runs out and stain on other fabric. This situation is called colour staining or “Luntur” , it happens usually because washing during fabric dyeing process is not properly done or not clean enough , so there are still particles of the dyes stays on the fabric. These dyes then runs to the water and possibly to other fabric during your homewash. Another possibility is that the washing is properly done but then during the drying fabric are exposed to a certain level heat and the chemical used are not heat resistant enough. So the colour appears to the surface of the fabric and thus easily leak during your homewash. 

It is commonly known that dark colour , and RED fabric are more prone to colour stain than the other colour. Be careful when you are working with bright red colour (like Indonesia flag’s red) , if you are unsure of the quality of the fabric or the garment , you may consider to pre-wash it separately before using it. 

Beside colour staining , there is also something called water staining. Water staining is the event where chemicals are released to the water but it won’t ‘stain’ on other fabric. Most of fabric when wash with warm to hot water will be water-stain , but not always colour-stain. We may not notice this phenomenon , especially when we use washing machine to wash our clothes. As you know clothes colour are diminishing with each wear right ? So where does the colour goes ? It goes to the water during washing. 

In conclusion , 2 things to take note for chemical dyeing of fabric with regards to colour staining : 

1. We need to use a good quality of dyes , one that with good heat resistance.   And read their manual because dyes manufacturer must have test the performance of the dyes. They will indicate maximum temperature that dyes can take, different colour of dyes may have difference heat tolerance even though they came from the same manufacturer. 

2. We need to ensure proper washing after dyeing and correct temperature use to dry the fabric. We should test each final product too before sending it to customers. 

Hopefully this article tells you something that you don’t already know. There are many more fascinating things about textile that we discover during our textile journey.

Until next time , have a good day !