I've felt more or less the same as you and recently I've found Test-Driven Development with Python[0] to be a really nice resource. It is first and foremost a TDD book, which I certainly appreciate, but it takes you through creating an app in a (to my eyes at least) fairly rigorous way. It probably shouldn't serve as an introduction to Django but for someone who has a basic idea of how a project is put together but has never connected those dots, it might be really helpful.

[0] http://shop.oreilly.com/product/mobile/0636920029533.do