Unhappily, there's little in do-it-yourself (8)
I believe the answer is:
dismally
'unhappily' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adverbs. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'little in do-it-yourself' is the wordplay.
'little' becomes 'small' (synonyms).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'do-it-yourself' becomes 'diy' (abbreviation for do-it-yourself).
'small' placed into 'diy' is 'DISMALLY'.
'there's' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dismally that I've seen before include "How one may fail" , "not very well" , "lacking in cheer" , "In gloomy way" , "Badly" .)