Linda Jobson
For nineteen years, Linda Jobson has been helping women all across Australia with a problem which, for some, is all too familiar. Linda’s Lingerie provides custom-made and fitted bras for women who can’t get comfortable in the mass-produced lingerie you find in shops. Mrs Jobson believes that God gave her sharp instinct and talent, and guided her toward this work. She dropped in to the Morning Cafe to tell Shelly Scowen about her lifelong search for relationship with the lord.
Mrs Jobson is the only person in Australia doing what she does, and the women she serves couldn’t do with out her. Most manufacturers make bras for a very small set of average sizes and shapes, which don’t account for the extraordinary variety of bodies God has given us. But Jobson individually fits and tailors her bras to each of her customers.
Bras are actually not that difficult to make. The manufacturers, I suppose, would like us not to know the tricks of the trade.
Most stores also sell bras made out of cheap materials, which some women can’t tolerate. “Some of my clients would really struggle if I wasn’t doing it,” she said, “particularly when they are allergic to synthetic materials and elastics. So that makes it difficult for them to access what they need if I wasn’t around, doing what I do.”
Even people who know their way around a sewing machine tend to put bras in the too hard basket. But Jobson, a former Knitwit teacher, started out teaching bra making in the early nineties, and was surprised by the results. “Bras are actually not that difficult to make,” she explained. The manufacturers, I suppose, would like us not to know the tricks of the trade.”
Jobson became adept at passing on the basics of bra making. She still runs regular workshops. But she has a unique instinct which is much harder to pass on. “When I was teaching bra making, I could see that teaching the techniques was easy, but fitting was the difficult part, because most of the women who were making the bras really didn’t know how to alter the pattern to fit them. So I sort of saw quite early on that there was a bit of a niche there. And that’s when I jumped in and started my business.”
Searching for Faith
Jobson was brought up in church, and was a youth leader in her Sunday school. “I went to a Billy Graham crusade in the late 1960s. I think I was fourteen or fifteen, and just felt the Holy Spirit speak to me at the altar call, and went down and gave my life to the Lord. Because I came from a small country town, there was really no follow-up. And being a mainstream church, they didn’t go down that track, and it just got lost.”
In her late teens, Mrs Jobson met her first husband, and stopped attending church. Their marriage, which brought her a daughter, ended in 1991, and soon after she returned. But over time, she grew more and more discontented, finding that her Pastor was unable to answer the questions she had. “I couldn’t put my finger on it,” she said, “but there was just something missing in my life.”
Yes, I knew about God. I knew about Jesus. I knew about the Bible. But I didn’t have that relationship. And that was what was missing.
“I met my second husband at tuckshop, where our children went to school, and went off to a charismatic pentecostal church with him, and different meetings, and realised what was missing was relationship with God. Yes, I knew about God. I knew about Jesus. I knew about the bible. But I didn’t have that relationship. And that was what was missing.”
They need to see what God’s doing in our lives, because that’s our testimony, and we all hope that one day they’ll commit their life to the lord as well
Jobson rededicated her life to the Lord, and found the inner peace she’d been waiting for. From early childhood, she had always had a keen sense of right and wrong, which left her frustrated whenever she saw it unfulfilled. Now, she understands that this was God’s guidance. In accepting his wisdom, she has been able to maintain friendships with Christians whom she feels have fallen by the wayside. “I choose not to spend a lot of time with them,” she said. “But they’re still my friends, because we need to share our faith with them. They need to see what God’s doing in our lives, because that’s our testimony, and we all hope that one day they’ll commit their life to the Lord as well.”
We’re learning and growing all the time, not just on Sundays, when our Pastor’s speaking.
Her new relationship with God is much more constant, and no longer confined to the church service. “The church that I attend, we have a school of ministry weekend once a month, and we have a whole series of meetings, we have international speakers, so that we’re learning and growing all the time, not just on Sundays, when our Pastor’s speaking.”
Jobson now has a loyal clientele in Brisbane and all across Australia. She regularly travels to Sydney and Melbourne to conduct fittings, and is investigating ways of serving customers in other cities. Though she has been sowing since she was nine years old, Jobson knows who to thank for the talent which has helped so many women. “God has given me whatever it is that I need to fit, and to know when a lady puts a bra on, what I’m looking at that I need to change and alter to make that bra fit her body the way it needs to.”
If we are doing something we are passionate about, then that’s where we’re supposed to be. That’s where God wants us to be.
When she started her business, she had no idea that it would still be thriving almost two decades later. “I just believe God’s lead me in this direction,” she said. “I didn’t know that at the time when I started it, but certainly now, I realise that God’s hand was on that. Because we know that if we are doing something we are passionate about, then that’s where we’re supposed to be. That’s where God wants us to be.”
To contact Linda, book an obligation free appointment, or see examples of her work, you can visit her website, at lindaslingerie.com.au.
