Having jeans taken in

[pmr]

Have you guys ever experienced success in having jeans taken in? The only time I've ever had it done, I had a tailor take the jeans in about 1", but ended up with some really strange bagginess in the seat due to the rigidity of the pockets. I took the pants to another tailor, and he said that to fix the way the seat looks they would have to basically rip apart the seam in that area and sew them together again. Am I just going to a bad tailor, or are my options this limited?

I run into problems with sizing a lot, because I'm really into weight lifting. My thighs are too big for 36s to be comfortable, but if I wear 38s I always have to have a belt tightened and sometimes it looks weird. Basically my waist is a 36 but nothing else is.

I just bought a pair of Earnest Sewn Fultons that are 38s...the fit around the waist is pretty good now, but I'm worried that when I wear them they'll stretch out a lot and I'll basically have to shelve them.