Great idea! Never thought of that; I have some of those somewhere.

I'm always on the lookout for heavy duty plastic placemats, I make all my templates out of those. They are cheap and durable and last forever.

I have found clear or almost clear cutting rollup cutting mats for $1.00 for two use those also with careful cutting you can get a lot of templates from a Poster frame. it has a thin hard plastic in the front. I discovered this by accident one time.

You can also make your templates out of paper, then, if you have a laminator, you can run them throught that a could of times to make them strong, then cut them out. I have done this a few times too. I then use a spot of stick glue to hold them to the fabric, or a touch of spray baste. Works well for me

I use the flexible cutting boards from the dollar store. Two in a package. They are see through enough to trace the pattern and easy to cut with a pair of scissors.

When I started out, I used fine grit sandpaper and cardboard from the back of writing tablets.Some time I glued the sandpaper to the cardboard.

I also use freezer paper

I use freezer paper or basting spray. Good luck!

You can also buy sheets of laminatimg plastic and just stick them on paper.

instead of paper templates I use the thin chopping mat I found 3 for $1.00 at the flea market. It trims up great with the heavy duty scissors.