What I do is put the needle down and then up. Raise the presser food and then grab that needle thread and pull gently. Then a little loop will peek out from the bottom. I use my seam ripper to gently pull that loop which is the bobbin thread. Once it's up I put my fabric back under the presser foot in the correct place, lower the foot, and then sew while holding the threads (to make sure they don't get caught in the sewing. I use a stitch length of zero and slowly raise it until it's the normal length and at the end, slowly lower it back to zero.