THREE TO MAKE, BUY OR CUSTOMISE

Put on an apron and suddenly you mean business. Accessorise with a pair of rubber gloves and you’re all set for maximum dirt-busting

1 MAKE

Buy a tea towel you like enough to wear* (Tunnocks tea towel, above, £9, gilliankyle.com) and a couple of metres of ribbon. Hang the ribbon around your neck and snip it off at about 20cm past your collarbone on either side. Hem, then place each end a third of the way in from the edge on either side of the shortest end of the tea towel. Sew in place. Fold the corners of the apron down to form a bib and stitch. Cut and hem two more lengths of ribbon and sew in place on either side of the apron below the folded-down corners to tie around you and keep it in place.

2 BUY

The point of aprons, of course, is to protect your clothes. To this end, the more of you they cover the better, which makes a bib apron a better bet than a waist one. The more hard-wearing the fabric, the better: PVC is a good option because you can wipe it clean, but for a robust, artisan version, little beats Labour And Wait’s bib apron, (labourandwait.co.uk, £48, above). Made from cotton duck (tightly woven fabric, like canvas) with brass eyelets and with two pockets (one with a gusset), it is tough enough to tackle any chore.

3 CUSTOMISE

Add a bit of pizzazz to your spring cleaning by buying a plain white apron and making it your own. Painter and decorator suppliers sell 100% white cotton bib aprons, from £5, or try johnlewis.com, which has a craft apron (above), from £8. What you do with it is up to you but you could scribble all over it with fabric markers (£20 for 12, hobbycraft.co.uk), render it psychedelic with tie-dye (One-Step Tie-Dye Kit, £20, hobbycraft.co.uk) or sew on fringing and sequins – a valiant attempt to make cleaning feel like a glamorous activity.