About the thread pulling out of the needle, I had been sewing for many years (and pulling a long thread out so it wouldn't pull out). One day I was looking up something in the manual and lo and behold! I found that if you Keep the take-up bar at the top, it will not pull the thread out when you start sewing! Now when I finish a seam, I just hold the thread and make sure the take-up bar is at the top. So simple I had missed it all those years.