“… Miss Caroline
tell me how you spend your time
I spend all my time
around the Singer machine…”

These lines from a popular song of the nineteen forties sum up what was for many women then, a new reality. This paper identifies the sewing machine as an important element in the psychological and financial liberation of the woman, here the Caribbean woman of the twentieth century. Evidence in support of this claim will be offered predominantly from Caribbean creative writing where artists have noted the importance of that invention in the lives of their mothers and in the achievements of their families.