You might want to check out: http://www.subdividedstudios.com/Trinity_System.html

The evil attackers of loops. Lint on clothes that creat little balls on them. Tight pockets. (Just move it up on your arm, or spread your fingers as soon as you go to the pocket, or crank you wrist out, or even use your other hand to help you open the pocket (which is pretty funny) I've gotten used to them, and I have a set of Loops prepared (if you don't know how to prepare a loop, you might want to look at the videos by Yigal or Garcia from Ellusionist, I think they call them Guerilla tactics with Loops) and another set of unprepared Loops (2) on one side, I pencil mark them so I know what to do in the Magician's batcave (aka the bathroom stall). I've never been successful making my own, and now I'm an avid Loops user because I frankly hate reels and wax.

I've had this pocket issue as well. I mostly wear jeans and the loops often hooked to the seam of the pocket when I took my hand out again. But I found that a certain movement of the hand prevented that. It is hard to explain, but if you imagine the pocket seam as a horizontal line, I turn my hand so that the loop is a vertical line to that. This way it works for me and after a few tries it looks natural.

At first I thought, "That's a GREAT idea!" and then I wondered, "oh, maybe that was a joke." Now I don't know but it raises the issue. If you DID have a loop big enough to go around your chest (and wore a shirt with some sort of pattern to help hide it) that would give you plenty of stretch wouldn't it? Has anyone actually used this idea?

Yes. Ron Jaxon's Infinity loop had about an 18 page booklet on it. The "Trinity System" by Subdivided Studios goes over making body bands with their hardware and IET and shows a floating bill effect (I believe) on the dvd. These are probably the most commercial 2 but others have done effects using full body bands.

Thanks, PD! After posting I found more threads that mention body bands...

What a revelation! Lots of possibilities. I can't wait to search out the references you mentioned.