I am doing something very wrong. Every time I stop sewing and then restart, I have to rethread my sewing machine. I am a patient person, but this is getting to be a bit much. I have the tension set at what the sewing manual directions suggest. I have the machine threaded correctly. What could be causing this? Please help my sanity!

WHat happens when you start again? Sometimes I have to rethread the needle when the end is too short and jumps out. On one of my Pfaffs, the thread jumps out of the uptake lever - but not consistently. So it's hard to answer your question.

Do you have the top thread pulled out enough to the back ? And hold it when you do the first couple stitches ?

It sounds like you are not leaving enough thread end when you cut your thread. I leave about 6 inches from the needle to the end of the top thread.

One question - do you have to rethread because the thread is breaking? Silly as it sounds, this happened to me once and I eventually cured it by turned the spool of thread upside down so it rotated in the opposite direction. I can't figure out why this would make a difference, though. Maybe I did something else different at the same time that really fixed up, but this is the only thing I remembered doing?

PS: I had not been drinking wine at the time.

do you have your needle in the down position when it stops.
This will cause the needle to come unthreaded unless you use a very long thread tail.
Also become accustomed to always leaving a long thread tail.

Sounds like your cutting the thread tail too short when you stop. When you stop, snip top & botton threads at the fabric & then leave a couple inches (lay behind the needle) before starting to sew again.

Sounds like you are threading it wrong. What kind of machine is it? Old Singer's thread left to right, FW right to left. When you stop sewing pull your thread to the back, left about 4-5 inches andcut close to your work. Always leave your tails to the back of machine. That gives enough thread when the needle goes down to not pull out.

Do you use a small piece of "leader" cloth to start and end your sewing?
It saves thread, your machine doesn't "eat" the cloth and your needle won't
get unthreaded. You can reuse the same piece of cloth several times. Amma
did a little demo in tutorial if you are interested.

I was always taught to hold the thread when you start sewing because the thread will invariably come out. Using leaders is good too. I have a Brother that I don't have to hold the thread but every other machine I've used you have to hold the thread or use leaders. Depends on your machine. Is this machine new to you?