Two women get the Prince’s Trust Grant

A FASHION graduate who makes clothes for her daughter has started a business after requests for her designs. Heidi Gray, 26, was helped to start House of Sasha - which is named after her four-year-old daughter and sells clothes and home furnishings - by a young entrepreneurs’ course run by The Prince’s Trust charity. Miss Gray, who grew up in Maidenhead and now lives in Wokingham town centre, said: “I’ve been making things for my child and just kept sewing really. It kind of snowballed from there really. “Sewing has always been a passion of mine but I never really knew what I was going to do with it or how I was going to go about using it. Fashion is very hard to get into and this seems to suit my lifestyle.” After doing a diploma for higher education in fashion design and textile at Northampton University, Miss Gray taught sewing and worked in sales in Spain before moving back to the UK a year-and-a-half ago. She said: “It was definitely a good career move because there’s a lot of help in the UK with business start-up, especially for younger people.”

Miss Gray did the course with the Prince’s Trust, attending sessions in Reading. She said: “The course was excellent. It teaches you everything you need to know about setting up your own business. It was absolutely fantastic.”

Miss Gray tried another business venture, a web-based company renting out designer shoes and handbags but found a higher volume of stock was needed than she had and switched to making clothes and bunting, cushion covers and other furnishings.

The items are sold via her website and at the Vintage Pavilion shop at Moss End Garden Village in Warfield. She will also be selling them at the children and babies’ craft market at Bulmershe Leisure Centre in Woodley, on Saturday, August 20, and other sales and Christmas markets.