SHARADA DEVI, A.PRASANTHI DEVI, K.2018-06-042018-06-041999D5790http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810048987Banana belongsto the familyMusaceae and genus Musa. After harvest ofthe fruit,fibre could be extracted fromthepseudostemwhichis an agricultural wasteand could be used forvarious textile purposes. The present studywasundertakentoseethesuitabilityofikatdyed banana blends forfurnishings. Banana fibre was blended with viscose rayon intwo proportions of60:40and40:60andtwotypesofyarnsin45 tax were spun on cotton system. Two weft ikat designs suitable for furnishingswere evolved. Boththe blended yarnswere tied according to the designs and dyed with natural dyes (Natural indigo, Myrobolan and Chawali—kodi)asperthedesigns. Plainweavefabricwaswoven with2/ 205cotton yarn as warp and theblendedyarn as weftona frame loom. The fabric samples were tested fortheircolourfastness properties and costwascalculated.Theacceptabilityofthefabricsampleswasassessed by a panel offifty members constituting the postgraduate students and staffofHomeScienceCollege,ANGRAU,Hyderabad.The collecteddata wasanalysedusingonewayanalysisofvariance. xii Laboratorytestsforcolourfastnessrevealedthatblueandorange colourshad‘excellent‘fastness,whereas,yellowcolourhad'fair'fastness tosunlightandwashing.Allthethreecolourshadabetterrubfastnessin dry condition than inwetcondition. Subjective evaluation revealed thatsixty percentand forty eight per cent ofthe respondents were aware of blended fabrics of bast fibre originandarticlesmadefrombanana fibrerespectively.lkattechniquewas knownto majorityofthe respondents. Theblendedfabricsofbanana-viscosein40:60ratioweregraded asfabricswithbetterlustre,drapeandtexturehence, bettersuitedtothe purpose of furnishings than the 60 : 40 banana-viscose blend. The monocolourwithitsnaturalcolourcombinationanditsdesignwerepreferred to the double colourcombination and its design. Among all, the sample withbanana-viscose4O:60blendproportionandmonocolourdesignwas. preferredbestbecauseofitsbetterappearanceintermsoftexture,lustre, drape, colourand design.ennullThesis