A YOUNG mother has started an international children's clothing business and still finds time to care for her young family.

Emma Collinson, 24, sold her three children's outgrown clothes and toys to fund her first Internet sales.

The £50 she raised was enough to set up Designed For Mums, renting an e-shop on the Ebay site and buying clothes from a wholesaler.

From her home in Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, she has already found customers in Sweden, Denmark, Australia and the US, and is applying for grants to develop her business further. She fits her work around the children, who are aged from five to nine months.

Ms Collinson said: "I aim to sell quality children's clothing at affordable prices, catering for the newborn through to 16 years old, as well as smaller baby equipment, toys and knitted collections.

"I know there is a market out there from the interest I have had."

Ms Collinson works from a four-bed-roomed house on the site of a former chemist's shop. Her website is www.stores.ebay.co.uk/desingedformums