It is her vocation, her hobby, her passion.

After spending the day in her studio designing or making her striking creations, Shirley Davis relaxes in the evening by sewing on embellishments or finishing up hand stitching in front of the television.

“I don’t ever really stop, I suppose,” laughs the 78-year-old who moved to the New Forest from London 15 years ago.

It seems the older I get, the busier I get,” adds Shirley, who as well as being a full-time milliner also runs a campsite that came with her house.

“I see a bit of fabric and I’ve got to turn it into something. I can’t keep up with my ideas.”

She is so busy that her daughter, who also trained as a milliner, helps out.

Shirley started out as an apprentice milliner when she was 15 at a shop before going on to work at two theatrical costumiers.

She went freelance when she had her first child, Nathan, in her late 20s and has been working for herself ever since.

During that time she has made hats and costumes for TV shows, films, stage shows and cruise ships around the world.

She has made everything from period hats for hit TV series such as House of Eliott and Northanger Abbey through to costumes for the likes of Twiggy in the Ken Russell movie The Boyfriend to 56 masks for opera singers in a Christmas spectacular show.

She has worked with the likes of The Two Ronnies, making Ronnie Corbett a hat that was almost as big as him and had to be suspended on a wire from the roof of the studio, Shirley Bassey, who she says was very friendly, Morcambe and Wise, Ken Dodd and Bob Hope.

“They were all lovely people,” she says.

“It’s a very friendly world but very hectic because the deadlines will suddenly change.”

Her film and TV credits include Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Life Of Brian, Women In Love, Robert Redford movie The Great Gatsby and Marilyn Monroe film The Prince And The Showgirl.

She has also worked across the world sevendays l 11 on shows, creating masks, headdresses and feather back pieces, working anywhere from Korea to a casino 6,000 feet up a mountain in Malaysia.

“Today there is less and less TV work around,” she says. At one time the BBC and films kept me occupied all the time.

They did so much costume work and period stuff but there are so many reality shows now and they are really boring. It’s a whole different ball game.”

But although the TV work may not be there any more, Shirley has plenty to keep busy, working on theatrical shows such as Horrible Histories and even the occasional reality TV show – she created masks for Britain’s Got Talent.

This summer she has also taught millinery for the first time, teaching summer students at Bournemouth University.

She has also branched out into making and selling off-the-peg hats and masks, rather than only working on commission.

It started in 2009 when Shirley had the first of two knee operations in close succession.

“I had all this material left from the shows and I started making things because I was bored. That’s why I’ve got so much stock now!” she laughs.

Shirley is enjoying the opportunity to create some of the designs that she has buzzing round her head and the response to her readymade hats and masks has been good – she has sold them for everything from weddings to household decorations.

The masks retail at anything from £10 and the hats from £20 up to around £150, depending on the material and the time it takes to make them.

“One of the headdresses I’m doing for a show is covered in crystals and it’s taken me about 18 hours to put them all on,” she says.

“I’ve never thought about retiring. A friend of mine said, ‘You know if you stop, you’re going to die,’ and it would happen like that, I think.

“I couldn’t stop – I’d be so bored. I still really enjoy it. It’s a bit of an obsession I suppose.”

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