1) It was hard to make anything even as far as the stitches looked. 2) I found myself not knowing what to do with the very beginning of the stitch relative to how to tie off the thread. 3) The thread got tangled when I tried to tie it off half way down the hem because I ran out of thread.

1) Just like that old chestnut "please sir, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" "practice, my son, practice"

2) There's a number of anchoring techniques. Tying a knot in the end and taking a few stitches hiding the knot under a fold; or no knot, but taking a few very tiny stitches on top of each other with the leaving the last loop loose, run the needle through the loop, tighten the loop; a quilters knot is a small knot that is pulled through the top layer of fabric so that the knot is trapped between the top and bottom layers of fabric. That one takes a bit of practice to master.

3) As you stitch, the thread can get twisted. If you wax the thread first, it won't twist as much, or let the needle dangle every 10 stitches to unwind, or if you can figure out which way it twists, you then counter twist slightly as you sew.

If you get knots in your thread as you sew or make a mistake, just cut the thread off at a point in the hemming that looks nice, and start a new thread about 3" before the end of the hemming.