Amateur construction to gather dry air (5)

I believe the answer is:

ditty

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'air' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'amateur construction to gather dry' is the wordplay.
'amateur construction' becomes 'diy' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to gather' is an insertion indicator.
'dry' becomes 'tt' (abbreviation for teetotal).
'diy' placed around 'tt' is 'DITTY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ditty that I've seen before include "Little tune" , "Simple tune" , "Light-hearted song" , "Short simple song" , "Air" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sunday Times and The Times.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.