I never could sew without fabric under the presser foot. My sister in law used it and she did it and worked just fine. She continued stitching at the end of a piece until the chain was long enough to cut and start sewing again without unthreading the needle. I thought if she can do that on my machine I can too so I started sewing a few stitches between pieces and it works for me too. Usually I only do three or four stitches before I start again.
Kenmore, if you use a better thread you won't get so much lint build up. Just a thought.