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Plus Size Fashion

Is a Craft Gin Club subscription worth it? – A Curious Fancy

by Lina Clémence
written by Lina Clémence


A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.

We’ve been getting a monthly subscription box from Craft Gin Club since February this year and I wanted to talk a bit about it! Full disclosure: Owen is the gin aficionado in our family and I’ve been partnering with Craft Gin Club on a gifting basis as a little monthly treat for him. We receive the boxes, I create some content each month (sometimes with Owen’s help, sometimes by myself) and then we enjoy the gin, snacks and mixers.

Would we pay for a Craft Gin Club subscription if I wasn’t in a position to create photo and video content in exchange for the monthly boxes? The answer is yes. We’d probably get a bi-monthly subscription instead of a monthly one – Craft Gin Club offers monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly subscriptions along with the option of purchasing one-off boxes of the month. There are some monthly boxes that I’ve loved more than Owen did and vice versa, so I appreciate that there’s the option to choose the ones you like the most.

A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.

Whether it’s a subscription or a one off box, Craft Gin Club makes for a wonderful gift as there are so many different things to try out in every box. Everything comes packaged beautifully and securely, and there’s something for everyone. I love the fruity gin cocktails that I can make with the mixers while Owen prefers a traditional G&T. There are even things for Lila to enjoy (she loves the toddler friendly crisps and chocolate!) And thanks to Craft Gin Club, I’ve also discovered some new favourite beverages, both alcoholic and otherwise. That’s my favourite thing about these boxes – there’s a bundle of new things to try out every month that we wouldn’t discover otherwise, and some of the snacks and beverages from previous months’ boxes (blood orange cider and chocolate covered marshmallows immediately spring to mind) have become firm favourites in our household.

When we were shooting these photos in the meadows, we soon realised that we’d once again forgotten to bring a bottle opener, so we couldn’t make the cocktail of the month for the photos! (With every subscription box, you also get an issue of the Craft Gin Club magazine which has a variety of cocktail recipes and ideas including the cocktail of the month, the ingredients for which are included in the box.) So I quickly made a cocktail of my own creation with the Tassie gin, limeade, cocktail syrup, and dried pineapple garnish. And it was so good! I know next to nothing about making cocktails and with the ingredients in a Craft Gin Club box, I can just throw things together to my liking and get a delicious end result. Now that’s what I call magic!

This is July’s box that you can see in the photos – we’ve already received the box for August and I can’t wait to unbox it and try out the gin and other goodies inside! The boxes are £40 each and all of them have a full sized bottle of gin along with a range of tonics, mixers, garnishes and snacks to nibble on while flipping through the monthly magazine. Craft Gin Club also has frequent discounts on their website which make the boxes even better value! So here’s to a subscription box that never fails to delight, month after month *clink* And to more makeup free photoshoots (did you notice?)

A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.
A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.
A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.
A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.
A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.
A summer meadow picnic with Craft Gin Club’s subscription box styled by Ragini R/ A Curious Fancy. Ragini is sitting in a meadow wearing a green floral apron dress. Next to her is a mirrored tray with a bottle of gin, 2 glasses with gin cocktails, and some meadow flowers on it. Close to the tray is a wicker basket wth packets of snacks in it.



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Plus Size Fashion

The perfect summer holiday dress – A Curious Fancy

by Lina Clémence
written by Lina Clémence


Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.

Wearing ✶ Retro cotton print dress c/o Very Shop summer dresses at Very UK ✶ Self made hair bow ✶ Espadrilles and Bee shoulder bag, both c/o Very

It’s late August but I’m not ready to let go of summer yet! And with the August bank holiday weekend predicted to be sunny and warm, I’m hoping for one last river swim before the end of the season and holding on to my sundresses and sun hats. Last weekend, I wore this sweetest of summer dresses for a little trip to the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury. We’ve driven through Rothbury several times on our way to Cragside and Wallington, and I’ve always wanted to shoot some photos against the charming shopfronts and houses.

Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.

My entire outfit has been gifted by Very.co.uk (with the exception of my hair bow, which I made!) Very has so many delightful sundresses and maxi dresses in at the moment that are just perfect for summer holidays or a daytrip to a picturesque market town like this. It was hard to pick just one but in the end, this Monsoon dress in the most darling retro print had my heart. Everyone keeps saying that twee fashion is making a comeback but for me, it never left. I leaned heavily on the cutesy retro vibes with a red bee crossbody bag and cream espadrilles, both also from Very, and finished the look with a me-made hair bow and red lipstick. Matte red lipstick and winged liner is my go-to makeup look when I want I want to exude retro vibes without going into too much fuss. And my curling iron waves ended up looking like a messier version of pin up curls, which is the closest to pin up hair I’m ever going to get!

Regarding sizing, I’m wearing a size 20 in the dress and a size 8 in the shoes. In hindsight, I should have sized down to the 18 in the dress as the 20 is currently a bit too loose for me and this is meant to be a fitted style. If you look at reviews of this dress on Very and Monsoon, you’ll find a lot of people saying that it runs small, but that hasn’t been my experience at all – I feel that it’s quite true to size. The espadrilles felt a bit tight on my somewhat wide feet at first (I can wear both wide widths and regular, depending on the shoe) but after a bit of walking, they stretched out and were perfectly comfortable all day.

I hope you enjoyed this old school outfit post! I miss the days when I’d dissect my looks and discuss sizes and fit on this blog, and I think I need to bring it back. After all, twee fashion and outfit dissection is how I started blogging all those years ago!

Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.
Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.
Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.
Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.
Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.
Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. Picturesque shop windows and stone buildings are visible in the background.
Plus size fashion blogger Ragini of A Curious Fancy photographed in the Northumbrian market town of Rothbury.An fat Indian woman in her late 30’s, she has long black hair with white streaks. She’s wearing a retro maxi dress in a white floral print, cream espadrilles, and a red bag on one shoulder. She’s standing next to a river, under a stone bridge.



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Women's Fashion

An eco printed dress fit for an elven queen – A Curious Fancy

by Lina Clémence
written by Lina Clémence


Wearing ✶ Eco printed linen dress by Gillian Smellie {Similar in a different print here} ✶ Hair crown from Eclectic Eccentricity 8 years ago ✶ Wide Welly Co. wellies

✶ Get 15% off your purchase from Gillian’s online shop or in person at any of her pop up shops with my code CF15 ✶

Who else is watching the middle earth fanfic also known as The Rings of Power? I’m supplementing my viewing with a re-read of The Book of Lost Tales (Vol. 1) and it’s fascinating to revisit Tolkien’s earliest penned tales from over a century ago alongside the latest retelling fanfic. Elvish lore was very much on my mind when I received this breathtaking eco printed dress by Gillian Smellie, and it immediately transported me to the woodlands of Doriath, the hidden city of Gondolin and the shade of the mallorns of Lorien. For this is truly a dress fit for an elven queen!

Some collaborations unfold in the most serendipitious way. I met Gillian at her stall at the Brancepeth Castle craft fair back in the summer and instantly fell in love with her magical leaf prints. The next day when I posted some photos from the fair on my Instagram story, I tagged Gillian in one of them and to my surprise and delight I found an email from her in my inbox the next morning asking me if I’d like to style any of her pieces! Of course I jumped at the chance.

Gillian Smellie is a textile artist based in County Durham who uses locally foraged leaves to create unique and magical prints on preloved garments. You can read more about her dyeing process on her website here. Sustainable and eco friendly fashion is at the heart of her work and the reason she mostly prints on preloved and vintage garments. In my conversations with her, Gillian expressed her keen interest in expanding the size range of the garments she prints on. As pre loved garments in larger sizes that are also suitable for eco printing are rare, Gillian has been sourcing plus size linen dresses and tops from a manufacturer in Italy to expand the size range of her products. The dress I’m wearing is one of these.

At the craft fair, I was very taken by a pair of dungarees with a striking fern print that was sadly too small for me, so I requested Gillian to print my dress with all the ferns! As luck would have it though, ferns have been very low in tannin this season and produced rather faint prints, so Gillian redid the dress with sumac and rose petals and the results exceeded all my expectations. There are a few garments in my wardrobe that I’d classify as wearable art, and this dress is one of them. Despite being a huge Tolkien nerd for more than 2 decades now, I’ve never felt particularly inclined to dress up as a hobbit or elf…until I put on this dress and was enveloped in it’s ethereal beauty. The linen is also buttery soft and has a lovely weight to it. I’m wearing a size large and it’s very roomy and oversized on me (I’m currently a UK18-20) For sizing reference, I feel this dress is more of a UK 22-24.

You can shop all of Gillian’s available products at her online shop here. Gillian also does a lot of pop ups and fairs in and around the north east of England, and you can see her schedule for upcoming shows here. As she has recently started expanding her range of plus size garments, it’s worth dropping her a message if you want to buy one of her creations but can’t find your size in the webshop. Gillian can also print on any suitable garment from your own wardrobe – here’s what she told me about custom printing: “Yes I do print to order. I cannot guarantee the outcome but I can aim for a specific look/use specific leaves etc.  I’m not doing any more bespoke before Christmas but happy to take post Christmas orders.” So if you’d love to have a piece of wearable art in your wardrobe but can’t find your size in the online shop, get in touch with Gillian for a custom printed garment just like my sumac and rose elven dress!



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