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Seamstresses, with their distinctive position within the Parisian working class, fascinate the numerous philanthropists and journalists who multiply their publications thus modelling the image of the perfect female worker as they fantasize her. The seamstress’s leisure time constitutes a major component of these Pygmalions’ productions. Song is viewed as a way of transmitting Republican values and righting these female workers’ morals. At the very start of the 20th century, a certain number of works offer free artistic education to young Parisian seamstresses, using methods that recall those in school promoting education through song. Despite these reformers’ attempts to impose good forms of leisure, the workers vary in their singing practice between submission, rebellion and at times subversion. This paper tries to recreate their distinctive voice on their path to emancipation.