A quick follow up:
Looks like opening up files from the command line in Sublime by invoking the application with the file name
subl README.md
will often open the file in the most recently used window. If sublime is your default text editor (on a Mac, at least), opening files using the ‘open’ command, via terminal,
open README.md
seems to open them in a new sublime window.
Not necessarily the most intuitive workflow, but one way to solve my current problem.
My alternative, desired, approach, would be to use subl README.md to open a file, and then a shortcut to open that tab in a new window, should I want to – OR to have sublime always open new files from the command line in a new window, as it does when you open them from Finder. If anyone knows how to do this, or has any alternative suggestions – I’d be interested to hear!