Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 024: Patterned Apron Hints and Answer

Puzzle 024 is Patterned Apron, a 25-picarat Arrange puzzle in the Living Room of the Layton family home in Stansbury, during the Chapter 2 flashback to Hershel Layton's school days. Hershel's mother, Lucille, sets it after dinner. She has folded her old apron in three different ways, shown as A, B and C on the top screen, and each fold shows a different part of its flower pattern. On the touch screen you drag five flowers onto the unfolded apron to show what the pattern looks like when it's opened out.

Video: Patterned Apron solved. It shows the answer, so skip it if you only want the hints.

This page covers story Puzzle 024 in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on Nintendo 3DS (US and UK English), using the North American text, with pictures rebuilt from the game's own art. If you're after Daily Puzzle 024 or Puzzle 24 from another Layton game, see Wrong Puzzle 024? below.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Puzzle 024 Patterned Apron at the start: on the left, the top screen shows a dark blue apron with pink flowers folded three ways, a small square labeled A, a wide strip labeled B and a triangle labeled C, with Lucille thinking at the lower right; on the right, the touch screen shows the unfolded apron with straps on both sides, dashed fold lines and nine orange X marks, and five pink flowers waiting in a pale oval on the right — Illustration of the three folds on the top screen and the empty apron on the touch screen, rebuilt from the game's art.

What Puzzle 024 is

Puzzle 024 at a glance
Name	Patterned Apron (the same in the US and UK English versions)
Type	Arrange (drag five flowers onto the apron, then submit)
Picarats	25
Location	Living Room, the Layton family home, Stansbury
Chapter	Chapter 2
Story scene	Hershel's school days
Given by	Lucille, Hershel's mother
Solved by	Hershel
When it's there	After dinner, probably while your objective is "Go to Randall's House!"
Reward	Probably none besides the picarats
Previous puzzle number	Puzzle 023, Fairway Fibber (also in the Living Room)
Next puzzle number	Puzzle 025, Brave the Caves (Academy Gate)

Lucille's question reads: "I wonder if you can solve this riddle. I've folded up my dear old apron in three different ways. It makes the flower pattern look different each time, see? Can you tell me what the pattern will look like when I unfold the apron?" The instruction under it says: "Look at images A, B, and C above, and put the flowers on the apron." The objective bar on the touch screen sums it up as "Match the apron's pattern!"

How the puzzle works

Five flowers, nine marks. The unfolded apron has nine orange X marks along its fold lines, and the five flowers start in the pale oval on the right. A flower you drop on the apron appears to snap onto one of the marks.
The flowers are all the same. It probably doesn't matter which flower goes where; the puzzle appears to check only which five marks have a flower on them.
Place all five, then submit. The Submit button appears to work only once all five flowers are on the apron.
Each fold hides part of the apron. A, B and C each show only one part of the apron, so no single fold gives you the whole pattern. You have to work out which part each one is and combine them.

The touch screen of Puzzle 024 with gold number badges added over the nine X marks on the apron: 1 at the top, 2 at the upper left, 3 at the upper right, 4 at the left, 5 in the center, 6 at the right, 7 at the lower left, 8 at the lower right and 9 at the bottom, with the five flowers still in the pale oval on the right — Illustration of the nine marks numbered 1 to 9, added to the game's art. The hints and the answer below use these numbers.

To keep things clear, this page numbers the marks 1 to 9, reading from the top and left to right: 1 is the top, 2 the upper left, 3 the upper right, 4 the left, 5 the center, 6 the right, 7 the lower left, 8 the lower right and 9 the bottom.

Puzzle names

Puzzle 024 names
Version	Puzzle name
North America	Patterned Apron
UK	Patterned Apron
Japanese	エプロンの柄 ("the apron's pattern")

The Japanese title is エプロンの柄. The North American version carries a different Japanese label for it, エプロンのナゾ.

The UK English text keeps the title and the three folds but words a few lines differently. Lucille ends her question with "All you have to do is tell me what the pattern will look like when I unfold the apron!", and a correct answer opens with "Right you are!" The folds and the answer are the same in the US and UK English versions.

Wrong Puzzle 024?

Daily Puzzle 024 in Miracle Mask is a different puzzle: Zoo 03, from the Pen Pals set. It has nothing to do with an apron.
Puzzle 023, Fairway Fibber, is in the same room at the same time, given by Hershel's father, Roland. If your puzzle is about four golfers and a liar, you've got the one before this.
Puzzle 24 in another Layton game is a different puzzle. If yours doesn't show a folded apron with flowers, you're in the wrong game.

Where you get it

Puzzle 024 comes in Chapter 2, the flashback to Hershel's time in Stansbury. After his studying, Lucille calls him down to dinner, and afterwards the objective becomes "Go to Randall's House!" Before you leave, go to the Living Room and talk to Lucille. She says, "Hello, dear. Weren't you going out?" Hershel answers, "I just realized I left something behind," and she replies, "You'd forget your hair if it wasn't attached to your head. But since you're here, have a look at this apron with me." Then the puzzle starts.

The Layton family Living Room, with a green striped armchair at the lower left, a curved bookcase and a grandfather clock on the left, a dining table and chairs in the middle and a fireplace on the right. Numbered gold rings mark hint coin spots 1 on the checked cushion of the armchair, 2 on the floor lamp at the upper left and 3 at the fireplace, and a teal ring labeled Zoom sits on the arm of the armchair, at the foot of the bookcase — Illustration of the Living Room, rebuilt from the game's art. The numbers mark the three hint coins in the normal view and the teal ring marks the zoom spot. Lucille isn't drawn here.

Lucille probably offers the puzzle from the time the objective becomes "Go to Randall's House!" until the objective "Find a Way into Randall's Room!" It doesn't look like a puzzle the story needs: it doesn't appear to give a reward. Flashback puzzles you miss should turn up later with Nanna Grams (known as Elizabeth in the UK version), who keeps the puzzles you missed, once Chapter 3 begins.

The Living Room has six hint coins, three in the normal view and three in a zoomed-in view. In the normal view they're on the checked cushion of the green armchair at the lower left, on the floor lamp at the upper left, and at the fireplace. To reach the other three, tap the zoom spot at the foot of the bookcase, just above the arm of the green armchair, to zoom in. Those three coins are probably at a bottle in a basket, the top of a chair and a clock. Each coin can be collected only once, and coins aren't tied to a puzzle. On this visit, Puzzle 023 is also waiting in the same room.

Hints, one at a time

These follow the game's own hints, in the same order, with a little more explanation. Open only the next one you need. In the game, Hints 1 to 3 cost one hint coin each and the Super Hint costs two.

Hint 1: Look at the straps

The straps tell you which part of the apron each fold is showing. Check where they are and which way they point in A, B and C, and compare that with the unfolded apron. Some straps are drawn darker. That means you're looking at the back of them, so that part of the apron has been folded over.

Hint 2: Which fold to start with

A covers part of the same area as B, and B is the bigger of the two, so work out B first. Once you know what B shows, A is easy to place, and it makes a good check.

Hint 3: What fold B shows

In B, the top half of the apron is folded underneath, so you're looking at the bottom half. That's half the pattern. The flowers cut in half along B's top edge sit right on the apron's middle fold line.

Super Hint: What fold C shows

C is folded along the diagonal from the top right to the bottom left, with the bottom-right half tucked underneath. It faces the same way as the unfolded apron, so you're seeing its top-left half. Put what C shows together with what B shows, and you have every flower.

Answer and full solution

The answer below covers every step, with a diagram of how folds B and C fit on the apron and a picture of the solved puzzle. Open it when you're ready.

Show the answer

Answer: put the five flowers on marks 1, 4, 6, 8 and 9, that is the top, the left, the right, the lower right and the bottom. Marks 2, 3, 5 and 7 stay empty. Then submit.

Fold B is the bottom half. The top half is folded underneath, so B's top edge is the apron's middle fold line.
B gives you four flowers. The two flowers cut in half along B's top edge sit on the middle line at the left and right ends, marks 4 and 6. The two whole flowers are at the bottom, mark 9, and at the lower right, mark 8. The lower left, mark 7, has nothing, and neither does the center, mark 5.
Fold C is the top-left half. It's folded on the diagonal from the top right to the bottom left, and it faces the same way as the unfolded apron.
C gives you the fifth flower. It shows a flower at the top, mark 1, and one at the left, mark 4, which B already gave you. The upper left, mark 2, is empty.
Nothing sits on the diagonal. Marks 3, 7 and 5 lie on C's folded edge, and C shows no half flowers there, so all three stay empty.
Check with fold A. The small fold A covers part of the area B shows and fits the same layout.

Two rows comparing the folds with the unfolded apron. Top row: fold B, a wide strip with half flowers on its top edge and two whole flowers, next to the apron with its bottom half outlined in gold and lit, showing flowers on marks 4 and 6 on the middle line and on marks 8 and 9 below. Bottom row: fold C, a triangle with two flowers, next to the apron with its top-left half outlined in gold and lit, showing flowers at the top and at the left — Illustration of what folds B and C each show, drawn on the unfolded apron with the game's art.

The game confirms it. Lucille says, "That's my boy! This is what the pattern looks like. When the apron is folded up, you can tell which part you're looking at by where the apron straps are and the direction they point. I do like the haphazard way the flowers are arranged!"

Puzzle 024 solved. On the left, the top screen shows the unfolded apron with five flowers, at the top, left, right, lower right and bottom, and Lucille at the lower right with her hand to her mouth and a speech bubble of dots; on the right, the touch screen shows the same five flowers on marks 1, 4, 6, 8 and 9, with the X marks at the upper left, upper right, center and lower left still empty — Illustration of the solved apron on both screens.

If your answer keeps failing:

You used the center. The center, mark 5, lies on C's diagonal edge and on B's top edge. A flower there would show as a half flower in both folds, and neither has one.
You used the upper left or upper right. C shows the whole upper-left area and it's empty, so mark 2 is out. Mark 3 is on C's folded edge, where there's no half flower.
You used the lower left. B shows the whole bottom half, and its lower left is empty.
You turned B or C the wrong way round. Check the straps again. The game's wrong-answer line is a nudge in the same direction: "There must be something that can help you to identify each part of the apron..."

Picarats, hints and hint coins

Patterned Apron shows 25 picarats when it starts. The puzzle can award 25, 23 or 20 picarats. Wrong answers can drop it to 23 and then 20, though how many misses it takes to drop a step isn't clear, so it pays to be sure before you submit. A wrong answer gets "Too bad." with the reminder that something can help you identify each part of the apron. If you try again, Lucille says, "Look at the pattern on this apron." If you back out of the puzzle, she says, "Go on to your friend's house, now."

Hints cost hint coins, not picarats. The costs are one coin each for the first three hints and two for the Super Hint, five in total. The Living Room's six coins, three in the normal view and three in the zoomed-in view, would cover all of them if you collect them all and haven't spent any elsewhere, for example on Puzzle 023. Or use the free hints on this page and save your coins.

Versions

Nintendo 3DS family: this page covers the 3DS game. You drag the flowers with the stylus on the touch screen.
US and UK English versions: same name, same folds, same answer. The UK text is worded a little differently.

The scene around the puzzle

Hershel is on his way out to Randall's house after dinner when he slips back into the Living Room. "Hello, dear. Weren't you going out?" Lucille asks. "I just realized I left something behind," he says. "You'd forget your hair if it wasn't attached to your head," she teases, and then shows him her apron.

When it's solved, Lucille says, "All right, off you go, then, dear. Have fun!" and Hershel answers, "Good luck with that apron, Mother." Talk to her again afterwards and she says, "Be careful walking home in the dark!"

FAQ

Where is the answer to Puzzle 024?

It's in the Answer and full solution section above, hidden until you open it. If you only want a push, open the hints one at a time first.

What is Puzzle 024 called?

Patterned Apron, in both the North American and UK English versions. In Japanese it's エプロンの柄.

Where is Puzzle 024?

In the Living Room of the Layton family home in Stansbury, during Chapter 2. Talk to Lucille after dinner, before you head to Randall's house.

Does it matter which flower goes on which mark?

Probably not. The five flowers appear to be interchangeable, and the game seems to check only which marks have a flower.

Is Patterned Apron bugged?

It doesn't appear to be. The puzzle seems to accept one set of five marks, and the solved picture on the top screen shows the same layout. If your answer is rejected, the most likely cause is a fold read the wrong way round. Check the straps, and remember that darker straps mean you're seeing the back.

Why won't the game let me submit?

The Submit button appears to work only when all five flowers are on the apron. Make sure none are left in the oval on the right.

Do I have to solve Puzzle 024?

Probably not. It doesn't appear to give a reward, and missed flashback puzzles should go to Nanna Grams from Chapter 3.

How many picarats is Puzzle 024 worth?

It shows 25 picarats when it starts, and the puzzle can award 25, 23 or 20 picarats. Wrong answers may reduce the picarat value.

Is Daily Puzzle 024 the same as Puzzle 024?

No. Daily Puzzle 024 is Zoo 03, from the Pen Pals set. Story Puzzle 024 is Lucille's apron puzzle.

More Miracle Mask puzzles

For the rest of the game's puzzles, see the Miracle Mask puzzle index.