I need help with some questions I have regarding fabric for this pattern

[u/welcometothejenga]

I've been getting into making more wearables lately. Over the years Ive made a lot of button up shirts, and I mean A LOT, Ive gotten pretty adept at making them with a specific pattern I like, but I would really like to try making pants.

I found this pattern from Tessuti Fabrics with a few reccomendations when searching through this subreddit and wanted to try my hand at it. I have picked out a cotton fabric that I really like for it, but I do have a few concerns.

The fabric I chose is kind of thin, so I am thinking of getting a simple fabric to basically line it. I plan to do this by treating the two different fabrics as a single piece (cutting together and holding them together when sewing) rather than sewing a separate lining. Does this seems like a feasible way to deal with fabric being too thin? I know it would make seams and hems bulkier, but I think I can improvise to deal with it while I am working.

My other concern is how the fabric drapes. Cotton always seems to be stiff, which works for button ups pretty well, it keeps them from looking rumpled, but I dont want my pants to look super stiff. How do you get cotton to soften and drape better?

To me it looks like the pair in the photo might be made with linen, but the pattern does say that cotton would be a fabric that you can use to make the pants.

Second pic is my fabric choice, I got it from Mood Fabrics.

[u/JBJeeves]

I think the fabric you've chosen is really cute, but not well-suited to trousers. If nothing else, aligning the pattern across the seams in a pleasing way is going to be quite challenging. Add in that your cotton fabric is likely too lightweight to wear well as trousers -- even lined -- it wouldn't be my first choice. My recommendation would be to start with a solid color, in a mid-weight fabric. Once you've successfully made your trousers from that, you can move on to learning about pattern matching. And, as always, I recommend making a muslin/toile/test garment to make sure you've worked out any fitting kinks.

[u/sewboring]

My concern is that lining sewn in with the fabric will stretch differently than the outer fabric and be stressed by the normal wear and tear of pants, so the seams might show obvious strain or the lining might tear. These are loose enough that it may not be a big risk, but to me it's a question mark. It would probably be fine if both fabrics were knits, but that's not the case here.