Help with Girl Friday Culottes

Hello! I am making the Girl Friday culottes and everything was going fine until I got to fitting the waistband at the end. Although I double checked the pattern pieces and sizing, the waistband is much smaller than the waist of the culottes and I am not sure how to fix them or at least how to avoid this problem in the future. This was my test fabric and I do want to make a pair in nicer fabric. I did attach some photos if you are able to see my mistakes from the photo? Thank you for any help or advice. I really do love how descriptive the directions are.