Pedal pushers or capris as they are called now come below the knee. If they are above the knee they are called walking shorts.

If your pants are only a size too big they can be altered. I wouldn't try if they were any bigger than that. I have lost weight and I altered a few pair of mine. I undid the hem and a bit of the crotch seam. Mine had elastic waist bands that were fine so I didn't have to touch it. Otherwise I would have to remove the waistband and I didn't want to do that.

I started sewing all seams at the waistband and close to it on the same stitching and gradually went wider to a 1/4 inch seam from the stitching. I did this on the 2 outside seams. Mine had slanted front pockets and it didn't make much difference in pocket size. On the inside seams I started with the crotch and a 1/4 inch seam all the way down to the hem. Then I sewed the crotch seam. I started at the waistband on the back and widened the seam to 1/4 inch as for the sides. As I got close to the curve for the crotch I narrowed it back to the stitching and then widened it out again to 1/4 inch and narrowed it back to the stitching at the waistband.

If you have a zipper it will be harder to make the crotch seam smaller. I would suggest you put the pants on inside out and pin the seams to see if things will work. I wouldn't try to adjust the seams more than 1/4 inch or you will end up with them not looking good. Doing a 1/4 inch smaller seam on the 2 sides will make them an inch smaller around. Add in the 1/4 inch crotch seam and you take off another inch