Thanks to everyone who responded! I really appreciate the advice and input. I tried a couple of different methods and the one that seemed to work the best for me was simply laying the fabric out on the ground (or bed) and pleating it that way. It took a bit longer than the "stand and gather" method, but my wife said that it made better, cleaner looking pleats.

I wore it to Scarborough Fair this past weekend and was amazed at how comfortable it felt. Well, until the sun came out, that is. This material, being acrylic (or something man-made) was rather warm, and toward the end of the day I found myself rather uncomfortably hot. I'm sure that the extra material that I had gathered over my shoulder didn't help matters.

But this gave me some valuable experience and I'm looking forward to making another one, though this time out of wool.

~Ken