Abstract: In this paper, eight kinds of vegetable dyes were used for dying cashmere, wool, nylon and silk textile whose fibers containing amide bonds, and then the K/S value and soaping fastness were tested. The results show that K/S values of dyed cashmere were significantly higher than that of wool, and K/S values of dyed nylon were mostly higher than that of silk. Further, K/S values of dyed cashmere were the largest among the four fibers, and nylon achieved the largest values with several vegetable dyes. Regarding color

brightness, the color of silk and nylon was mostly brighter than that of wool and cashmere. The silk fabric achieved the highest values in the color saturation. Meanwhile, the color saturation of nylon was the largest with some vegetable dyes. Concerning color fastness, the color fastness of cashmere and wool was better than that of nylon and silk. However, color fastness was closely related to the structure of the dyes.

Key words: vegetable dyes; fiber with amide bond; K/S value; color fastness