DEVELOPMENT OF WARP YARNS FROM WATER HYACINTH AND WILD BANANA FIBERS BLENDED WITH POLYESTER AND COTTON FOR TENSILE STRENGTH IN WEAVING PHAH SABAI KHIT (TRADITIONAL THAI BROCADE)

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate the performance of weft yarns in withstanding weaving stresses during the production of Phah Sabai Khit, a traditional Thai supplementary weft brocade. Two types of yarn were examined: natural yarn (water hyacinth fibers plied with wild banana fibers) and blended yarn (natural fibers combined with polyester-cotton yarn). Water hyacinth and wild banana fibers were extracted through manual scraping and treated by soaking in 0.1% v/v acetic acid solution. The fibers were spun using a hand-operated spinning wheel to produce yarn with a composition ratio of 3:3:1 (water hyacinth fiber : wild banana fiber : polyester-cotton yarn), then manually twisted into continuous lengths exceeding 1 meter. The resulting natural yarn exhibited irregular thickness with structural integrity but demonstrated stiffness. Subsequently, this yarn was S-twist plied with polyester-cotton yarn to produce blended yarn, which showed improved flexibility and softness while maintaining shape retention, though thickness remained irregular.Testing according to Thai Industrial Standards (TIS) for textiles revealed that the natural yarn and blended yarn had linear densities of 25 tex and 54 tex, respectively. Twist per inch (TPI) values were 18 and 5, respectively. Mechanical property analysis showed tenacity values of 48.0 g/tex for natural yarn and 8.89 g/tex for blended yarn, while elongation percentages measured 48.0 ± 0.31% and 70.6 ± 0.45%, respectively.Scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analysis of uncleaned fiber and yarn surfaces revealed that water hyacinth fibers exhibited rough, non-planar surfaces, whereas wild banana fibers displayed smooth, flattened surfaces. Carbon content in wild banana fiber was approximately 15% higher than in water hyacinth fiber, suggesting superior strength characteristics in wild banana fiber. The findings demonstrate that the blended yarn shows potential for application as supplementary weft yarn in the hand-loom weaving of Phah Sabai Khit fabric.