Skills I want to learn

I need to work on my skills gradually, because my current method of sewing is stupid. Currently, I pick things I like and do them as well as I can--if there's something I don't know how to do, I skip it or do a poor job of it. I wind up with ill-fitting or badly constructed clothes, and this makes me unhappy.

So. These are the skills I want to learn, in no particular order. Please recommend your favorite resource for learning them--book, video, blog, class, whatever!

1. Bodice alterations. My particular issues are narrow shoulders, slumped shoulders, and a small bust. I think probably a princess seam is the easiest to alter, so I may start with that.

2. Pockets. I can easily sew pockets if they're in a pattern, but I would love to know some pocket theory so I can add them to patterns that don't have them.

3. Buttonholes. They're easy on a machine, but my machine can't do them, and my handmade ones are sad and pathetic.

4. Facings. Mine never work right. They always flop and stick out. I need to learn either how to do them properly or replace them with a lining. Or something.

5. Underlining. The one time I tried it, it did not work well. I don't know what I did wrong, but the top layer stretched out and got all baggy. It's not pretty.

6. I don't even know how possible this is, but it would be nice to know how to alter RTW tops. (See fitting issues above.) I don't really feel like sewing complicated things like jackets, at least not yet, but they never fit me!

Any other skills I should know, but clearly don't?