 From the middle of the 14th century , money that had previously been spent on luxury goods like lavish embroidery was redirected to military expenditure , and imported Italian figured silks competed with native embroidery traditions . Varieties of design in textiles succeeded each other very rapidly , and they were more readily available than the more leisurely produced needlework . The work produced by the London workshops was simplified to meet the demands of this deteriorating market . The new techniques required less work and smaller quantities of expensive materials . Surface couching replaced underside couching , and <unk> embroidery was replaced by individual motifs worked on linen and then applied to figured silks or silk velvets . Increasingly , designs for embroidery were derived directly from woven patterns , " thus losing not only their former individuality and richness , but also their former ... story @-@ telling interest . " 
