Laura Savage

Now that face masks are being made compulsory in certain places, it's helpful to know how to make your own from home.

Making your own COVID face covering is surprisingly easy, uses minimal materials and can even be jazzed up using patterns of your choice. Follow the simple steps below to make your own face masks for the family and help stop the spread of COVID this summer.

These instructions are for a simple cloth face mask using hairbands or elastic, but there are a few other versions you can try such as the t shirt or bandanna method.

1. Cut two 10" x 6" rectangles from cotton fabric. The thicker the material the better - if you can see through it when held up to the light, your material is too thin.

2. Place the rectangles on top of one another with a sheet of kitchen towel cut to size and tucked between the two.

3. Fold the bottom edges in a 1/4 inch to create a hem, then sew along this line. Leave the top open to carefully remove the kitchen towel before washing (replacing it with a fresh one before wearing your mask again).

4. Place a hairband around each of the shorter ends with the fabric tucked just inside, then fold the fabric around the elastic to create another small hem.

5. These will be your ear loops - sew them in place along this fold.

6. If your hairbands aren't tight enough to secure your mask, you can snip them so you have two strands of elastic then retie into as tight a knot as you need so that your mask comfortably stays in place.

Alternatively, you can start with two loose strands of elastic, sew the width-length hems in a straight line across these and then tie them in place around your ears.

Against an idyllic countryside backdrop, we caught up with blogger Robin Marsden of Peel and Friends to find out about how her family is managing their lockdown house-move.

Aussie expat Robin has been living in London with her husband and three girls, aged five, four and one, for ten years but finally decided to relocate to the countryside just before the pandemic hit.

We chatted to her about how the family pulled it off, what the miraculous move has given them and how she’s balancing the needs of three daughters under one roof.

Watch the full interviews on Kidadl TV, or find out what we learnt below...