Altering clothes

is not something I know a lot about. I am fine with the idea of taking up a hem. (Being a very short cat this has been an essential piece of knowledge I have gained over many years.) Anything else is something I lack almost any experience of and am unlikely to obtain.
I was in the charity shop a couple of days ago. (I wanted an old saucepan and it seemed a likely place to find one.) Of course I prowled past a rack of clothes. I saw a tag on one.
Yes, a new garment somebody obviously did not want. The colour was not me at all but I knew it was one which suited our neighbour-across-the-road. She has done a good many things for us and, like me, is happy to shop for clothes in a charity shop.
I pulled the garment out. It was a short sleeved cashmere-merino jumper (sweater to those of you in the US). Would it fit her? I wasn't sure. There was something about the style that didn't look quite right but, for a very few dollars, I bought it. If it didn't fit her I thought it might fit the Black Cat. There was no suitable saucepan. They were all much too good for the intended purpose.
I passed the garment over to her husband to give to her. Yesterday she came over. No, it didn't exactly fit but....would I mind if she altered it? 
      "It's yours," I told her, "Do what you like with it."
She immediately launched into her plans for it. The explanation puzzled me somewhat but it is obviously clear in her mind. I have to say here that she is a very skilled dressmaker. Whatever she has planned will no doubt work. She will have a new top of some sort. It will be a bit of effort but, to her, obviously worth that effort.
I am glad I made the purchase.
Later that day her husband came over - with a saucepan. He had taken his young granddaughter to another charity shop and they had found a saucepan. This saucepan was small enough and old enough for my purposes.
I think we both did well out of this exchange of charity shop purchases.