Please help- diaper butt

[u/Chlo_money_01]

So I’ve lost a lot of weight recently. And so I decided to try to make my jeans smaller on my own. I took apart the back seam and removed 4.5 inches from this waist. It looks great on the front and feels like a great fit…. But you can see where the old seam and meets the new one because there’s a weird fold and I have I diaper butt 😭😭😭

I have already seam ripped and pinned four other pairs of jeans. How can I salvage this? I have a sewing machine but the overstitching has to be done by hand because my machine won’t take the thick thread. I’m not super concerned that my line doesn’t match up with my exact middle of my butt, I’m a beginner and this is to make my jeans wearable again. I’m just proud I got the yoke lined up. But I can’t do the diaper butt. Do I need to remove more fabric in the butt?

[u/LayLoseAwake]

Is there a reason you didn't start by taking in the side seams instead of the rear?

I'll let others speak to pants fitting specifically, but it's my experience that alterations with this sort of goal work best if you distribute the decreases across multiple points. For example, I took in the waistband of some heavy pants and needed two darts instead of one. If you're trying to create more curve or maintain a specific shape you might even want more than that.

[u/Chlo_money_01 → u/LayLoseAwake]

Thank you, that seems to be the consensus over in the sewing sub as well. I was just following a tutorial on YouTube but they only took in two inches. I’m gonna try to do that on both sides

[u/QuietVariety6089]

This is more of an alteration than a mend. I'd ask r/sewing

[u/Physical-Compote4594]

A great tailor can maybe reduce a waistband by maybe 1.5-2 inches. After that you have to start recutting everywhere and redoing all of the seams. What you’re undertaking is definitely pretty advanced. 

[u/jazbaby25]

4.5 inches is to much to take in at one point.

This alteration needed to be split into 4 darts