Maclean Smyth

Crafting and chronic illness…with a few healthy home tips and homesteading stories along the way ✨

I’m a disabled homesteader originally from the Bay Area who used to own a makerspace in Houston, now runs a global custom merchandise brokerage, and used to have forty five acres near Denver but now calls one acre in Asheville home. I've just relaunched my online shop full of hand crafted and thoughtfully designed goods after several years being bed bound. There lots more to come in the future, and I hope you'll follow along! And in case it's useful, it's pronounced muh-KLAIN sm-EYE-th ;)

06/03/2026

Hung a few baskets above this doorway, changed the quilt for summer, and trying to resist the urge to paint all these creamy off white surfaces the same green as the stairs

05/01/2026

Just a casual and quickly snapped photo of a hard to capture color to mark the first of May 🌱

04/29/2026

I made a dress! Two, actually…

I mentioned in my last post that I used to make clothes with some regularity, but it’s been years since I attempted anything with a pattern. And a big part of becoming more functional again has involved diving headfirst into the things that keep me going, which almost always includes making something. So when a dear dear friend invited me to her wedding, I knew it was time to make a formal dress for the first time in 27 years.

My life these days doesn’t call for many formal dresses, and I wanted to be able to wear whatever I came up with often in daily life (to be reminded of my beautiful friend and her joyous wedding), so I ended up making two nearly identical dresses. Separately they’re more casual, but together they make something appropriate for a formal occasion.

The first one is made from a vintage fabric I found that looks like heavy jacquard but is actually a lightweight quilting cotton and makes an excellent summer dress. The second is an exact replica of the first (with short puff sleeves added) in an airy raspberry chiffon that could also look great over jeans. Worn together, the floral pattern on the cotton is just visible under the transparent chiffon.

Incidentally, the last formal dress I made was for my 16th birthday, and it was actually incredibly similar to the one pictured here (I just realized that typing out this caption)! I’ll try to find a photo to post in my stories. I think that dress was made from a “Titanic” pattern from Hancock fabrics - maybe a Butterick or a Vogue… the movie had recently come out and was the only pattern available in the Edwardian silhouette I wanted. This time around, I used a pattern I purchased from an independent maker on Etsy, and I was absolutely spoiled for choice.

I filmed this entire sewing process for a YouTube video I originally planned to upload along with this post, but life has been so full the past few weeks! I’m currently engaged in a marathon landscaping project and also preparing to host a small family reunion in a few weeks, but I expect I’ll catch up on social media sometime this summer 😅

More about this trip to New Orleans in my next post!

04/07/2026

I’ve been invited to witness a close friend’s nuptials soon, and that is a great honor. It means so much to me, in fact, that the more I searched online for an item of clothing that differentiates itself from the casual comfort my living situation has required for so many years, the more I realized I didn’t want to buy something off the rack. This event is too special for that; this milestone in traveling away from my home for the first time in years to celebrate my friend is too meaningful. So it’s time to start sewing garments again.

I originally learned to sew from my mom, who studied clothing and textiles at an Ivy League college back when Ivy League colleges still had clothing and textiles programs 😂I actually thought I was going to grow up to be a fashion designer, and for a while I took a stab at having my own clothing line, but the fashion industry didn’t agree with me, and making the same thing over and over again just in different sizes didn’t agree with me either.

I’ve been planning this project for a few months, but as usual, I didn’t start sewing until the last minute. I crossed the finish line at 4 a.m. last night and along the way remembered why I love making clothing. I’ll make another post in a week or two showing you the dress I made and telling you more about why I chose the components I chose, but in the meantime, I just want to revel in regaining another piece of myself from long ago ✨

03/26/2026

This video is 4 minutes long, and I have at least ten more prints and paintings waiting for their own fabric frames, so you could say I’m obsessed.

03/14/2026

How I feel pairing a set of my handmade duck earrings with a handcrafted dress (with pockets!) from .clothier 💅✨

Wearing the work of another maker is really meaningful. I understand the hours that went into this piece – the decisions, the care, the quality of the materials and craftsmanship. And I appreciate getting to choose every aspect of this piece – Nicole was more than happy to customize the size, length, and fabric - you don’t get that on Amazon.

A lot of us are struggling financially right now, and supporting handmade work like this can feel out of reach sometimes, but when I’m able to, supporting another maker always feels right. We’re all out here trying to keep the lights on with our hands and our ideas.

And buying handmade means my money goes straight to the person who made the thing, instead of feeding a system that churns out more and more for less and less. It’s one small way I can back the kind of world I want to live in instead of the world we see so much on the other end of these screens.

Thank you, Nichole, for this beautiful dress! It’s exactly what I pictured and I’m excited to wear it for many years to come 💃💖

03/09/2026

and I tied the knot 7 years ago today 🎊

Life with William is proof that quiet moments and consistent commitment really add up to an incredible, beautiful life despite challenges that can be overwhelming if we don’t stop to mark our progress from time to time.

Happy Anniversary, my love. I will continue to cherish every day I’m afforded in this life with you.

03/01/2026

✨SHOP UPDATE✨

Like many artists with handmade wares to peddle, I’m terrible at advertising. But, like so many, I also sell my goods in an effort to eke out some financial solvency and bring a bit of whimsy and joy to this sick sad world.

In addition to my hand painted beeswax candles, fabric frames, and stationary, my little online shop has finally been updated with earrings, bag charms, enamel pins, magnets, and needle minders, all with my signature cottagecore farmstead vibe.

Every purchase funds my extremely glamorous housebound lifestyle.

No, but seriously - this shop is run by a chronically ill disabled person with very few options for income. Your support matters.

02/28/2026

A whimsical outfit to talk about a very serious subject 💄

It’s Rare Disease Day, and that has me thinking about under-diagnosis.

Some diseases are rare because very few people have them, while some feel rare because they’re rarely recognized.

Like many people with chronic illness, I could give you a list of diagnoses. When someone asks “what are you sick with?”, I usually say the conditions that cause me the most day-to-day symptoms are MCAS, dysautonomia, and ME/CFS, but that’s nowhere near the full list that’s accumulated in my chart over the years.

Here’s the part we don’t talk about enough:

While medical professionals debate which label fits best, many of us are still left without meaningful care, because the diagnostic criteria for some of these diseases are incredibly difficult to meet.

Sometimes the “gold standard” test is invasive and not something our bodies can safely tolerate. Sometimes the labs only show abnormalities during extreme flares - which are exactly the moments we are physically incapable of getting to a testing facility.

So what happens?

We end up with large groups of people who are under-diagnosed. Conditions labeled “rare” that may not actually be rare - just under-studied, under-recognized, and structurally difficult to confirm.

And at the end of the day, while a diagnosis CAN be incredibly valuable, meaningful, and lead to better management of an illness, so many of us find ourselves stuck in this limbo of a label that doctors aren’t willing to work with and symptoms that are still debilitating and devastating.

And for most of us, we don’t actually care about the label – we just want a better quality of life 💋

02/12/2026

Last night, just before it turned into today, I quietly uploaded another video to YouTube.

It’s the first installment in a new series where I share the real rhythm of my creative life, month by month. Not polished tutorials, but an honest mix of finished pieces, works in progress, experiments, and lessons along the way.

Swipe to see a few of the projects from “A Month of Making | January” and head to YouTube to find the rest, including some musings about what being creative has meant for me as I navigate permanent chronic illness and spending 90% of my time confined to my home.

This is the second video of eight weeks of uploading a video to YouTube every week. Next up is an IKEA dresser makeover that I hope you’ll enjoy as much as I did… Stay tuned and consider subscribing to my channel to be notified when new videos go live 💖🤩

Watch here: https://youtu.be/WWL0b2z7NYQ?si=4QlmDCP-uiwZGbQR

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Asheville, NC

Website

http://www.macleansmyth.com/

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