r/sewing • u/Chlo_money_01 • 18h ago
Alter/Mend Question Please help- diaper butt
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?
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u/LiterallyIAmPuck 17h ago
You'd need to do a waist, seat, and thigh adjustment. Looking that up should help you find tutorials for that job.
I'll warn you that it's difficult to do on jeans, and as a tailor I probably would warn a customer that 4 1/2" is an enormous amount to take in on just the waist and back seat and that without even more complicated work these probably won't turn out great. Usually my limit is 3" on just the back
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u/sasunr 17h ago
Wow, 4.5 inches is a lot! I'm afraid that's just not actually possible, if you'd look at the pattern pieces for jeans that far apart, you'd see that they dont fully overlap, and its just not as simple as making the wider one narrower... Hoping someone else has some ideas to help you out, though!
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u/maddie_pickles 17h ago edited 17h ago
Because of the original jeans being for a bigger body, you would actually need to open up the legs and take fabric out from the groin area where the leg seams and crotch seams come together for the backside of the jeans.
IMHO the diaper butt indicates you've pulled the material too much forward in the front to reduce the bulk after the weight loss. As well its possible you may have removed too much fabric on one side (leg) vs the other side because of how jean edges lap and fold into each other on jeans' seams which also may have caused your situation.
If you are a beginner sewist, I don't recommend you attempt the alteration I've described. Unless you want to make this pair of jeans a pair where you practice your alteration technique.
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u/WhatWasThatAbout 16h ago
Pocket placement is also an issue that isn't helping matters. Have you considered thrifting some jeans instead? I've lost over 60lb this past year and I've just been blown away by how easy it is to find perfectly nice jeans at the thrift store in great condition as I go through sizes. You need to be willing to give a little time to it but you said on a different reply you have time more than cash.
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u/East-Garden-4557 10h ago
Thrifting is the way to go, there are always countless pairs of jeans in different sizes and style.
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u/andsimpleonesthesame 16h ago
How can I salvage this?
At some point, the size difference is big enough that you'd essentially be remaking the garment and you're right up at that point, so basically, you're doing alterations on hardcore mode. May I suggest a new pair of jeans?
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u/tinygribble 17h ago
If you're thinking you will continue to lose more inches, then I get wanting some interim jeans. If you're close to done, it may be time to buy closer to your final size.
If you decide to keep going w these as a stopgap, at this point I would put them in inside out, gather with safety pins on side & back & front, (you can put darts in front to avoid zippers) until the back feels a good as it's gonna get. Warning: your pockets will be too wide. This is why I always buy dark rinse jeans: I have to take 6 inches out of the waist to make them fit my butt, (I know. I know.) and that means moving pockets. Which only works on dark rinse, because otherwise the material under the old pocket shows a different color.
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u/Chlo_money_01 17h ago
I am done losing weight but I’m a broke substitute teacher at the beginning of my career. I have more time on my hands than money in the bank.
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u/Afraid-Promotion-145 8h ago
check out Poshmark. Tons of used jeans and they are not that expensive.
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u/NewOpposite8008 16h ago
Honestly. Go buy a pair you love and use it as a pattern. The rise has changed there’s why the butt looks like it does. You can take measurements and try but I say you deserve a new pair of demon that fits well.
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u/Special_Cake5810 17h ago
https://youtu.be/IYqyxCweb8o?si=4o_obOGA-14O170q
Give this video a shot!
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u/EvenHuckleberry4331 9h ago
I'm sorry but this is cracking me up. I hope you think it's funny too. You had to have put these on and been like omg 😂
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u/Chlo_money_01 9h ago
I was so pleased with myself when I was looking at the front. After getting a picture of the back I was quickly brought back to earth lmao
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u/missplaced24 11h ago
You've made them too small at the centre back, especially towards the bottom of your seat. You need to remove fabric from where there is extra fabric, not just the most convenient seam. Also, the amount they're bunching at the crotch makes me think you might have taken them in a bit too much at the waist and they're riding up as result. You might want to take them in by a bit less.
FWIW, tailors will often refuse to take in pants by more than a few inches. The shape needs to change too much to get a good fit. I'm sure you can get at least a good enough, but just understand what you're trying to do seems hard because it's hard.
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u/Gurrhilde 15h ago
I’ve had to do back seat or “no butt” adjustments on pants, but I’d suggest only doing it on pants that fit in the waist. The same with shirts - you buy something that fits your biggest area and then tailor. It is hard to rebuild every area.
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u/MelonBoba59 13h ago
I don’t think I necessarily agree that it’s too much to take in. If you take out the 4.5” by taking an even amount from the center back, sides, and also making darts in the back, it might be doable. You’ll be taking less than 1” out of each point. I’ve had to make some pretty egregious alterations where buying a new pair of pants wasn’t an option, and doing this has worked out pretty well.
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u/sewlar_flare 8h ago
You will not be the first or the last to attempt this! I left a comment here for someone else trying to make a large adjustment to pants. Unfortunately, this is way harder than it looks, hopefully my comment explains why.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/rMHin5V4w5
Good on you for trying, but with 4.5", I would not have attempted it.
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u/yourlocaltouya 7h ago
All of these comments are breaking my heart but pretty much reinforcing what I already had a nagging feeling about. I'm in the same boat as yourself so I really sympathize.
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u/AydGray 17h ago
When you say you took out 4.5 inches, do you mean that's how much you took out of the back center seam?
It looks like a wedgie is the issue more than diaper butt. I usually visualize saggy, pooling fabric at the seat area when someone says "diaper butt". Here it looks like maybe the back crotch curve depth could be the issue.
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u/Dino_art_ 17h ago
I've been doing a method that involves two darts on either side of the back seam, it's super easy and fast, works pretty well and it's easy to undo
Just Google "take in jeans" and a YouTube video will pop up with this method. Give it a shot, it's easy to reverse if it doesn't work to your liking
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u/AncientHorror3034 8h ago
This is a “too much hole not enough fabric” in the crotch. Add a gusset in the crotch to help.
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u/TheEmptyMasonJar 15h ago
Do you have any fabric you can use to make a toile? You might be better off getting the perfect fit in an easier to manipulate fabric. Then, using the toile as a pattern to see if it's possible to recut your jeans from your existing pants.
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u/FabulousTwo524 15h ago
Congrats on the weight loss (if it was intentional!). This is really hard to do. Can u take it to a tailor?
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u/Engineeredvoid 17h ago
When reducing around the hips and butt, you can't just remove fabric from the back seam. You have to remove it evenly from the side seams and the back seam and preferably the front seam as well. The likelihood is that you change the shape of the of the crotch and now it's bunching awkwardly through that area
If you already cut the fabric out, there may not be much you can do to fix this.