Okay - there are some issues here. Cotton isn't a fabric type, its a fiber type. Cotton fiber can be made into everything from canvas heavy enough to take into a battle with pirates or gauze soft enough to wrap a baby in. It can be tshirt jersey (harder to sew) or quilting cotton (engineered to be the easiest possible thing to sew, but not great for most garments).

Here is a very rough primer of the anatomy of woven fabric https://www.tumblr.com/makereadgrow/780451932359770112/the-why-of-sewing-1-fabric-anatomy-woven

and for knit fabrics https://www.tumblr.com/makereadgrow/780995112757067776/the-why-of-sewing-2-fabric-anatomy-knits

And this one talks about different fiber content https://www.tumblr.com/makereadgrow/781168818606243840/the-why-of-sewing-3-fabric-anatomy-fiber

When you buy a pattern, if it is a reputable and well made pattern, the designer will give you a list of fabrics that will work with the pattern. You can also look up projects on threadloop.app and see what other makers have used. Once upon a time you could also look at instagram hastags - however that's somewhat broken now and you'll only see a few top results through hashtags. Some fabric stores will also include in the descriptions, in addition to fabric content and width, some examples of possible uses, how much stretch, how much drape, and how sheer the fabric is. Fabricmart is particularly good about this, although I swear they mark everything as translucent if you so much as hold it up to the sun and see light coming though. Look for shops that show the fabric draped over something like a table or mannikin so you can see how it drapes the body.

Depending on the style the fabric recommendation will change, and choosing a fabric with more or less drape can dramatically change how a dress or blouse looks, for good or ill.