If you hold the loose thread tails tight behind the machine, it normally won't eat the start end of the first piece either. This was a common thing taught to new sewers 50 years ago when I learned to sew, and is still required with vintage machines that will pull the thread tails back into the bobbin area and cause a real mess at the start of every seam.
Once you have sewn one piece, the thread "tails" are now held tight and it won't happen again unless you leave a lot of slack between your pieces. with newer machines, you can sew quite a ways with no fabric and not have the thread break, with many vintage machines, if you went more than two stiches with no fabric, you'd break thread unless you went very slow and kept the thread snug behind the machine.
Every time I sew, I'm amazed that newer machines (which to me is like 20 years or newer) can sew so well without holding on to thread tails when starting. Both my Juki and Babylock can form a stitch with no bobbin thread tail at all.