Chinese Frog Fasteners : 5 easy types (Tutorial)

The Chinese Frog closures bring glamour to the hard world of fasteners. Other than the decorative element, this is a very quick and easy to apply fastener.

A Chinese frog fastener consists of a button and a button loop. Both the button and the button loop are not the ordinary kind but consists of loops and knots which makes it a very attractive fastener for clothes and accessories. You can make them in complementary colors matching your clothes and sew them onto your bags or clothes for just that oriental touch or decorative element.

You can make a pretty Chinese frog fastener with a cord or fabric tube. Silk/ Rayon cords make beautiful Chinese frog fasteners. You can make a 1/4 inch or 3/8 inch wide fabric tube – follow the tutorial here to make thin fabric tubes.

You can use a hand sewing needle and stitch at all steps on the underside with tiny stitches, to secure the folds, loops and knots.

Frog closures usually measure 3 inch in length and about 1.5 inch width.

The Frog closures have a decorative loop design with one loop and one knot for closing it together. They are mostly made of rayon, polyester and cotton blend cording. The commercially available ones that is . But the commercially available ones are almost always way too expensive and too big for me. When you are making this fastener you can make it with any string, cord or rouleau loops (checkout this tutorial to make thin fabric tubes to make the frog loops).

How to make Chinese Frog Fasteners

Chinese frog fastener : Method 1

This is the easiest chinese fastener you can make. The buttonloop is made by folding the cord by half and then stitching in place after 1/2 inch from the fold.

For the button you can make a knot. Follow the steps below.

Fold the cord as in the picture below.

Chinese Frog Fastener – Method 2

Make the button part by starting with a knot (as made earlier) in the middle.

Chinese frog fastener : Method 3.

You can make this very attractive fastener this way. 

Chinese frog fastener. Method 4

To make this chinese fastener you can curl the loops and then stitch in place.

To make the button part of the fastener, start with a knot in the middle and then go on to make the same type of loops and curls as in the buttonloop part of the chinese fastener.

Chinese frog fastener : Method 3

You can make the chinese frog fasteners with cotton cord too. The tutorial given is for a simple frog loop.

I used a 50 cm ( 20 inch)  long string to make the one side loop, for bigger ones obviously you need more length. Just follow the pictures for instructions. I drew a cross of 2 inch length and 1.5 inch width. You can make this any size you want. Just manipulate the string around this cross and use pins to keep in place. I did this on my ironing table but even on a hard surface the pin will stay till the end when you hand stitch the whole thing securely together

How to Make the second loop with button

Step 1.

For the other loop you need a button knot. For that take a cord of 50 cms or more ( 20 inches) . Fold by half and start with the loop formed at the fold, left end under the right end . Follow this tutorial to make the turk’s  head knot which will give you the button you need.

At the end of the knot when you tighten the knot into a ball, you will be having a long tail. Manipulate the string to another three loops. Secure with hand stitches.

Step 2

Manipulate the tail end of the button knot to make three knots the same way you made the earlier loop. Then push the tail ends of cord to the back and cut off extra. Hand stitch everything in place.

How to attach the frog closure to your clothes

You need to hand sew it with some anchor stitches with a matching thread. First pin it correctly on to the garment. Then hand stitch all the loop to the garment, making sure that it is straight, not skewed. Also do not sew the closure loop (into which you will insert the button) to the garment

Quilted jackets, satin gowns, cute dresses for girls, tote bags, decorative boxes -You can use them to fasten n number of things. A cape can be beautifully fastened with this closure. A kimono jacket is another garment which could use this fastener. So you needn’t make those bright oriental dresses yourself to sew the frog clasps. 

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