Ok.

To craft items, you'll first need to recruit and level up your artisans. The only way to level up artisans is to do their missions, and you won't be able to level them up until Sequence 9.

I've got 2 videos which show how to do that
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b3EDxRrRTc
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFD2arb_DI


Various missions unlock at different sequences, so if you've run out of missions, progress the story.
If you've finished the story, note that some missions (Norris, Ellen, Farmers, Big Dave) happen outside the homestead. Again, check the guides for more info on that.
Also, you need to complete certain missions before others unlock. You can't get big dave until you've got all the other people, for example.

Once you have some artisans, you can start crafting. The crafting guide is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGJbsRq5ZSg