I was shown in a machine quilting class to make my own stencils out of poster board. ( thin cardboard) You just draw out your design on the cardboard. Set your sewing machine to a smallish satin stitch. Put in an old needle and sew on the line with no thread in the machine. ( my machine won't sew with no thread, I use thread) sew for several inches then leave a little space like in a regular stencil. Sew out the whole design to cut it just like a regular stencil. THe sewing machine will cut the cardboard out with a nice thin line for you. It works great.