Sewing Frog Closures - Make Chinese Button Knots

A traditional cording button and closure detail found on clothing is the "frog." These loop and knot fasteners are a way of closing clothes without making button holes or needing buttons. The whimsical nickname comes from the fact that the two knots look like a pair of frogs kissing. They can add a lot of detail as well as being functional, but sometimes they are added over hook and eye fasteners, are part of a fabric panel that hides a zipper or buttons, or they can be purely decorative.

Frog closures can be purchased in a ready-to-sew form, or you can make your own. Commercial frogs are most often found in basic colors: black, white, silver or gold. They tend to be simple shapes (three or five loop) and are often sold singly or in pairs. Making your own frogs is a good way to match an unusual color or it can be a good way to keep costs down if you need a lot of frogs or want a style that is more elaborate. Frogs are knotted or sewn from thin, flat cording that's most often rayon but you could use cotton or silk if you wanted.

The number one reason to make your own frogs is so that you can have just the type of garment closure you want. Sometimes you can't find a style you like, sometimes you can't find the right color.

For situations where you want to be able to match the color precisely, you just can't beat dyeing material to be just the color you want. After all, that's how we all get wedding shoes that match our dresses. Start with white cording and you can get any color you might need.

Really fancy frogs can be expensive and good-quality ones are hard to find. To avoid paying a lot for something that is just going to unravel or need hand-repairs, why not make your own? That way you know the construction is strong and will hold up for a long time.

There are a lot of variations for how frogs are made. There are templates you can get which will help you make the basic knotted or looped styles, but with a bit of practice, you would be able to make fancier or more complicated versions.

Loops - This style of frog has an odd number of loops (most often three or five), with one frog ending in a ball knot and the mate ending in a loop to form the fastener.

Coiled - Tight coils of cording form the bodies of these frogs. Sometimes the style is geometric and sometimes the coils are specifically done to resemble roses.

Knotted - The cording can also be tightly wrapped and interwoven to make a knotted frog body. These can be bar-like or rounded in shape.

Shaped - Some frog styles are made to look like other natural shapes such as dragonflies, butterflies, flowers or leaves.

If you don't want to buy one of the plastic templates that are sold for making frogs, it's not too hard to set yourself up to make your own. In fact, this is cheaper and lets you make more styles.

• A piece of foam core - a very cheap paper-covered foam board which you can get at any art supply or craft store.
• Straight pins - if you do any sewing, you probably own these already.
• A paper printout of the pattern or photo of the knot you want to make - this is so you can just follow along.
• Cording - thin, flat rayon cording or braid is what is most often used to make frogs.

To get started, tape your pattern or picture onto the foam core so that it can't move around. If you are going to make a lot of the same style of frog, you will want multiple paper guides as they will get a bit ratty after you make a few.

Lay out cording all along the paper pattern so that you get an idea of how much is going to be needed to make the frog and cut a piece that is several inches longer. Remember to allow extra for if you are tying a ball knot.

Starting from the ball knot (tie that first if you are making that half) or from the fastener loop, lay out the cording following the pattern of the frog. Use as many straight pins as you need to hold the shape and loops in place. When you get done, overlap the two ends to close the shape and then trim to make it neat.

To make the frog fastener, you then can either glue or sew the cording so that the looped shape becomes permanent. Repeat for as many sets of frogs as you need.