About Judith Gridley, Founder
From an early age, Judith was fascinated with textiles, clothing, pattern making, and clothing construction. Both of her Grandmothers were seamstresses and her Aunt was an outstanding knitter. Her Aunt owned a shop which sold yarn, knitting supplies, and garments. Judith started at age 8 making a skirt of her own from Dan River shirt length fabric and she hasn’t stopped designing and creating since then.
Being the Daughter of a Judge, Judith was brought up with a real work ethic and strong values (although she did still cause havoc)! She has always been very active in education, legislative, political, ecology and welfare study programs.
In 1964 she graduated from the U of Idaho with a BS in Home Economics.
Three children took most of her time for about 4 years, but she still found time to be politically active in the community.
Judith taught general home economics including sewing, nutrition, cooking, common sense consumerism, and home management at the North Idaho College for 6 years. During this time she also was active in AAUW (American Association of University Women) holding various elected offices and traveling as a Speaker to California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington D.C.
She worked as an Office Manager for a Dentist’s office for about 4 years where she handled the appointments, records, and bookkeeping.
After much self debate about income and the trials of a single Mom, she dared to start her own tailoring business out of her home in 1979. She developed a Client following, hosted style shows, reworked entire wardrobes, and kept her three teenagers fed, clothed, and housed.
When the last of her children left home, she moved herself and her business to Dallas, TX. There she was able to create quality Couture clothing, learn more about the fashion industry, associate with fabric suppliers, write a how-to wedding booklet, and fine tune a line of wedding dresses.
In 1995, she couldn’t resist moving back to the Northwest to be close to her first Grand-baby. Her business grew to not only clothing and wedding dresses, but special order fabrics. At this time, her two oldest children taught her how to use a computer. Simple!
Judith’s wedding dresses, The J Line, went online in 1996 along with her wedding how-to booklet, Dream Wedding. Her Daughter, Jessica, pushed her into putting information on fabrics and fabric sources (Fabrics.net) online in 1997. Together, they have built, worked, reworked, and added to the site. Here you can find fabric information, identification, care, sources, discussions, sewing professionals, and Judith’s expertise. If the answer isn’t on the site, Judith will find it. They feel Fabrics.net is a service that benefits everyone in the fabric/sewing industry including seamstresses, tailors, retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.
In her free time, Judith enjoys hanging out with her two Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs, Faith and Stormy. Reading has always been a passion of hers as well as knitting and spending time with her family.
Here’s a link to her Google Plus profile if you want to add her to your circles so you can chat.
